


Alternate Realities Vol 1-5 REFORMATTED

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [1]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 56
Words: 198,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>"Frigging Hell!" as Mattie would say.  I owe a massive "Sorry!" to anyone that's already read the old format version. In updating my Voice Dream Writer Markup to AO3 HTML code I found a horrible bug that had previously gone unnoticed, it dropped 5K words from the story due to some unicode issues. :(  Whole paragraphs were dropped, hence the new much higher word count in this version.  I'd only noticed when seeing a reply from Mattie in a chapter that looked out of place, the reason for her response missing.</p><p>Thanks to writer Jonathan Brackley, all at C4 and AMC, cast and crew for a brilliant Series 1 that inspired this fan fiction.<br/>Especially co-author Sam Vincent who endorsed Humans Fan Fiction.</p><p>An additional big "THANKS!" goes out to the following people, all of whom seeded parts of this work, some long long ago,<br/>in an office not that far away ;)</p><p>Lee Gray, good guy, defender of The Empire, 501st member BH9557<br/>Voice Dream Writer creator Winston Chen. The majority of this work was created in VDW on an iPhone6.<br/>AO3 members; ottermo, denimjackets, Teekalin and reflectivemuse</p><p>An even bigger thanks to my wife and daughter for putting up with me going about my life with one earbud in, phone in hand during breakfast, lunch breaks and evenings.</p><p>Any similarity to events in Series 2 is pure coincidence.</p><p>This book is Charity wear. You are licensed to print one physical copy for your own use or to give to a friend. You are not permitted to sell this work. If you like the book please made a donation to: Great Ormond Street Hospital via https://donate.gosh.org</p><p>For all HUMANS Fans</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Frigging Hell!" as Mattie would say. I owe a massive "Sorry!" to anyone that's already read the old format version. In updating my Voice Dream Writer Markup to AO3 HTML code I found a horrible bug that had previously gone unnoticed, it dropped 5K words from the story due to some unicode issues. :( Whole paragraphs were dropped, hence the new much higher word count in this version. I'd only noticed when seeing a reply from Mattie in a chapter that looked out of place, the reason for her response missing.
> 
> Thanks to writer Jonathan Brackley, all at C4 and AMC, cast and crew for a brilliant Series 1 that inspired this fan fiction.  
> Especially co-author Sam Vincent who endorsed Humans Fan Fiction.
> 
> An additional big "THANKS!" goes out to the following people, all of whom seeded parts of this work, some long long ago,  
> in an office not that far away ;)
> 
> Lee Gray, good guy, defender of The Empire, 501st member BH9557  
> Voice Dream Writer creator Winston Chen. The majority of this work was created in VDW on an iPhone6.  
> AO3 members; ottermo, denimjackets, Teekalin and reflectivemuse
> 
> An even bigger thanks to my wife and daughter for putting up with me going about my life with one earbud in, phone in hand during breakfast, lunch breaks and evenings.
> 
> Any similarity to events in Series 2 is pure coincidence.
> 
> This book is Charity wear. You are licensed to print one physical copy for your own use or to give to a friend. You are not permitted to sell this work. If you like the book please made a donation to: Great Ormond Street Hospital via https://donate.gosh.org
> 
> For all HUMANS Fans

Laura was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner, smiling as she watched Sophie wiping down the table, still doing her bit to make it look like Anita hadn't become Mia and left. The house felt empty. Funny how a busy family of five felt small without the extended family, the Elsters about. How many days had it been now? She'd lost count. Family. She'd met Anita, a synthetic Mattie had likened to the washing machine, said goodbye to Mia, someone she thought more of as family, like a sister, not just friend or acquaintance. How had that happened and in such a short time? She'd freely admit if asked that she'd been dead against "it" coming into the house, would now catch herself gazing out of the window, wondering how Mia was doing.

The world was changing. Family too. Joe was making far more of an effort, his moment with Anita wasn't totally forgotten or forgiven, but the family were a tighter unit for their experiences with the Elsters, Hobb and DS Drummond. Toby had been talking to him much more, a relief after his initial reaction to seeing Joe back in the house. "Soph, did Toby say how far they planned to go out riding?"

"I'm sorry Laura, I don't have the answer to your question." came the reply, totally deadpan. Sophie couldn't keep it up though and burst out laughing, running over for a hug. "I miss Anita and Mia mummy." giving a strong emphasis on the 'and'.

"Me too Little Mouse, me too." Laura couldn't see it but Sophie had smiled at that. Mia had given her the nickname and it was now her favourite.

Mattie rushed into the room, interrupting their moment. She had a puzzled look on her face, "Have you seen 'Weird Al' Yankovic videos?", propping up her Slate and spinning it around so the others could see. "Someone's sent me a link on Headcrack to this YouTube channel with a message 'Can't SLEEP? Watch THIS!'"

Laura flicked the page and set it scrolling, "I've seen a few in the past, he's been around for years. I've not seen any of these new ones."

Mattie span it back to face her, frowned at it, "I think someone's trying to pass on a message but I've no idea what it means."

"If they're being cryptic maybe it's a message they don't want the bad men to get?" offered Sophie.

Laura and Mattie looked at her, mouths open, stunned.

Mattie broke the silence, "When did you learn 'cryptic'?"

Sophie blushed. "Listening to you and Leo talking about Max. I asked Toby what it meant."

Mattie smiled, "Impressive Sis, very impressive."

Sophie went bright red, she wasn't used to such praise from her big sister.

"Let's watch some when the boys are back." suggested Laura, putting the last of the things in the dishwasher.

~~~

An hour or so later Joe and Toby returned, plastered in mud. Joe's beard looked like small wild animals might move in. They'd taken their dirty trainers off and left them outside the kitchen door. It occurred to Laura that she'd be looking at muddy footprints across the kitchen in the pre-Anita years. "It was my idea to go off-road," Joe admitted with one of his sheepish downward glances, "I'd forgotten about the heavy rain last night."

Laura rolled her eyes, "Both of you, go get cleaned up. And don't make a mess of the bathroom there's no Anita to tidy up behind you!"

Joe and Toby looked at each other and simultaneously said "You first" and followed with "No you."

Laura held Joe's arm and asked "Can we have a quick chat?"

Toby took the queue to head to the bathroom.

~~~

Joe poured himself a drink and took a sip. Laura leaned in and half whispered "We think someone's trying to get a message to Mattie without it being picked up by Hobb's people."

Joe frowned "Who's 'We'?"

"Sophie and I."

Joe laughed, coughed and choked on his coffee. "Sophie?"

Laura smiled and looked him in the eyes. "Our Barbie Doll playing, Oreo twisting little girl's seen a lot these past months, under that playful exterior there's a great mind growing Joe. She clearly understands more than we give her credit for."

Joe sighed. "Why do they all have to grow up so damned fast?"

Laura shrugged, "Unfortunately I think she'll be growing up far faster than Mattie or Toby did, the worlds changed. Anyway, we think the message is hidden in a video. But we don't know which one. Let's watch them all together."

~~~

Mattie got YouTube up on the TV and found the Weird Al channel.

Joe looked confused. "We're watching whacky pop videos first are we?"

Mattie went to explain but Sophie jumped in. "We're watching these videos Daddy, looking to see if 'Can't SLEEP? Watch THIS!' is a clue." then looked to her sister for confirmation. Mattie gave her the same smile as before and nodded.

Joe found the channel on his phone and was scrolling the list. "There's a lot of them, and some are interviews rather than pop videos, what do we watch first?"

"No idea," admitted Mattie, "we'll have to keep watching them until one of us works it out."

Toby rolled back laughing, looking at the ceiling, "And if there's no clue they'll find us old and grey years later with YouTube stuck on repeat." His humour was met with a high speed cushion to the face from across the room. He caught it at full stretch as it glanced off. "Calm down Mattie", he threw it back to where he knew it had come from.

Laura didn't say a word, just looked back and forth between them both until Mattie sighed a "Sorry". A moment later she added "Easy. Start with the newest, let YouTube autoplay move us through the list." She wriggled into a more comfortable position and hit play.

~~~

Sophie yawned, "I don't understand most of these."

Toby added "He's a nutcase."

Joe joined in, "When you're older you might appreciate them more, it's playing with words." The song changed to a parody of Royals by Lorde. Nobody noticed the song name, too busy watching Weird Al perform, singing about doggie bags. And take outs. A bit later the video changed direction and Al was seen putting on a hat.

Toby shouted out at the top of his voice "GOT IT!!!"

Mattie jumped like she'd just been zapped by mains, cursed and scrambled for the remote she'd let slip into the gap between settee and cushions.

"What? Got what?!" She rewinds to 02:00 and hits play.

"The foil hat prevents aliens from reading his mind. We did something like this in physics months ago," explained Toby, "it blocks radio signals."

"What's that got to do with sleep?" Laura wondered out loud, it was the wrong end of the day for thinking.

A look of realisation crept across Mattie's face. She smiled at her brother, "Nice one crusty!" and made a face that said not to say anything more, let's see if the others can figure it out. He resisted responding. "Who do we know that's in a long sleep?"

"Sleeping Beauty?" guessed Sophie not making the connection.

"A long sleep because we don't want HIM talking?". Still nothing. A look that said 'My family are idiots' crept across her face. "Talking electronically to Hobb?"

~~~

Joes eyes opened wide, "BLOODY HELL, FRED! Oops, sorry Sophie. We need a way to block his transmissions and power him up, safely get Hobb's Hack out of his root code."

Laura leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands, looking at the TV closer, "So who sent the message, why such a guessing game?"

"It's got to be Leo or one of the others, via a new account that can't be linked to them," Mattie said with some certainty, "who do we know with a synth that we can experiment with?"

Laura looked upset "No more hacking other people's property please Mattie!"

"I don't have software mods in mind Mum, I want to see what frequencies they send on, know what wavelengths to block."

Toby wasn't sure that was a good plan, "Who knows what mods Hobb made, better block everything."

That night a plan was hatched.

~~~

Everyone had agreed that carrying Fred out of the crypt wasn't an option. They needed to bring everything to him. Which meant that things needed to be no larger than the biggest rucksack they had so they'd not raise suspicions. Looking like a back packing tourist would be fine. After bouncing a lot of ideas back and forth they agreed on using a small pop-up tent. With the summer festival season over there had been a load of them in clearance sales.

~~~

Sophie was sat in the middle while Toby and Mattie worked around her lining the inside with layers of foil. Laura and Joe stood guard at the top of the stairs. Sophie would be having a pretend tea party if anyone got into the crypt. She was practicing her Oreo twist lick and stick routine.

Joe watched for a few seconds and had the weirdest feeling of deja vu. "Do you need me with the belts yet?"

"Any minute Dad." called Mattie, popping her feet out of the tent as she backed up towards its entrance.

A few minutes later and Joe was inside, looking at the seated Fred. Sophie was sat to one side quietly watching, surrounded with dolls, dinosaurs, plastic tea pots, cups and several packs of cookies. Moments earlier he'd strapped up Fred with all the belts they could get from the many charity shops they'd passed on the way. "I hope for your sake this works," a slight look of sadness came over his face, "otherwise I might as well be talking to a toaster."

"I'm done Mattie". He pats the inactive Fred on the shoulder, "Best of luck mate". 

Mattie is sat by Fred's side at the back of the tent, Slate running, ready and connected. Sophie sat by the tents entrance with all her dolls. Toby was sat just outside the entrance and would start tea party talk to alert those inside. If something went wrong with Fred and he managed to break free it would get messy fast. Mattie was used to taking risks, the hack at school and car stunt with Mia were two her mother new about, there were countless more. But none had put her kid sister at risk. She'd tried to talk Sophie out of it but Sophie had responded 'Why would anyone have a tent up indoors unless they were playing in it?' She'd had a point.

~~~

"Everyone ready?" She called. Four 'Ready' came back. Mattie reached across herself to touch Fred's chin.

She'd alway kept a distance before when powering up a Synth. To say this was up close and personal was an understatement! He gave the usual power up sound and went from blank faced and relaxed to confused and tense in a split second, not understanding his change of surroundings. He couldn't turn to see her, could only see the extra legs and tablet to the side and Sophie in front. His arms pulled at the many belts and one buckle snapped under the strain. "Fred, it's me Mattie, we're here to help! You're in a tent. Toby is just outside, Mum and Dad are guarding the entrance to the crypt"

"You're all in danger, Hobb's code has already sent a message, I know it's happening but I can't control it, power me down now!" He frowned for a few seconds and added "Hobb's orders were to keep things a secret, yet I was able to tell you that. How?"

Mattie gently touched his hand, "Try and relax Fred, we've taken precautions. We've made something that will block all transmissions. Maybe Hobb's code is flawed and you're not being able to receive anything has given you back some control?" The stress on the belts slowly eased.

"I'm about to do a direct mount of your file system and look at your root code. There's a risk something could go wrong." she warned.

Fred uttered softly "Tis better to have lived and lost than never live again."

"Weird Al would like you." Mattie mumbled as she started the script she'd written to automate things.

~~~

Her earlier guess was right. Hobb's team had made a terrible assumption, that when powered up Fred would always be online. The code that had looked so embedded and interwoven with his root code returned an error status when executed that made it stand out, as if calling for attention. A few of the tools she'd acquired from Headcrack to strip bad synth mods had the clean up well underway. Synth and consciousness code were very different but Hobb's team had written their changes using identical methods.

"I'll have a cuppa and cookie thanks Sophie" asked Toby in a loud voice.

"Shit!", Mattie's heart thumped as she panicked. Sophie turned to look at her, looking distressed. Neither of them really expected problems. Only minutes were needed to finish the job and now it might all fail, someone was coming. A shadow fell over the entrance flap. Mattie gripped the Slate ready to use it as a weapon. Adrenalin flowed.

Toby stuck his head through the entrance just as Mattie was about to take a swing at him, "False alarm, Dad says a drunk couple were looking for somewhere quiet for some fun, they've gone."

Mattie slowly breathed out, "Fuck!"

Sophie giggled, "I nearly weed myself!" The three laughed long and hard, the tension released.

"Hello Mattie, Hello Sophie." came a familiar voice. Mattie looked down at the Slate to see that the tool had finished and the script done the last of the tasks.

Fred was back.

"We're done!" she called.

Moments later Joe and Laura were at the tent. "How can we be sure it's worked?"

Mattie scrolled back the script output. "The tool says it worked."

"It's like the mini poster one of the team has at the office" Laura suggested, "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them - Ernest Hemingway."

Fred thanked Laura, then thanked Mattie for all her help with Mia, Max and now himself. "We will forever be grateful. I have a request.". Mattie said nothing but moved in such a way as to say 'go on', "I need help finding Leo, Mia, Max and Niska."

Toby recalled the previous visit to the crypt and Mattie's drive going missing. "Niska. You might have a problem there."


	2. Chapter 2

Karen crouched down and picked three blond hairs off the ground. "Pete, I've found something."

DS Pete Drummond dropped the tarpaulin he'd been looking at and walked over to see. He adjusted his glasses, gave her a smile and asked "What've you got there?"

She rolled them between her fingers, "I'm guessing it's bits of Niska's hair. Blonde, straight, a bit short though."

"It's easy to see if it's human." Pete got a lighter and wallet out of his jacket pocket. He opened the wallet and pulled out a black business card he'd collected, turned it face down and held it under the lighter. "Lets see what it does." He sparked it into life and Karen put the end of one hair into the flame. It popped and fizzed and turned the flame purple, dripping molten material onto the card. Pete scrunched up his nose, the tiny amount of fumes having got to him. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked at Karen, "Definitely not human." He looked back at the card and let the tiny beads of plastic that had cooled on the card roll off. He looked up from the card, "But does that tell us anything? You said they'd all been here together that day."

"True. But we've now got a sample. Each synths hair is unique. If she does anything wrong we might be able to use this to prove it."

"Does it? Why hasn't that bit of information been shared before? Ok, we'll get it off to the lab when we get back."

~~~

Pete did a 360 spin slowly taking everything in. "We know Hobb's monkeys did a full sweep of the place two days ago. With the equipment we watched them leave with there's no way they'd have missed sucking up those hairs. How did they know to come here? Could you have been followed when you met them all that day? If so why wait?"

Karen shook her head. "No, I deliberately took some long narrow alleyways, if anyone had been following I'd have known about it. My hearing is exceptional."

Pete rubbed his forehead, a headache was on it's way. "Could the Hawkins or Elsters have seen you watching the exit as they left? Niska left first right?"

"No, I was behind a door on the other side of the street looking through a crack. There's no way any of them could have seen me."

Pete closed his eyes. "You all meet up. Hobb's team do a clean. Niska returns. Why? There's something we're missing."

"I didn't see Fred leave." she offered.

Peter opened his eyes, "One thing I do know, I need a bottle of water, some paracetamol and a big bag of chips. Coming?"

~~~

TWO DAYS EARLIER

The Hawkins family and Fred were all sat in a circle on the floor of the crypt, packed bags by their sides. Sophie hadn't wanted to spoil her skirt on the dusty floor, without a word Toby had laid out his jacket, lining face up and motioned for her to sit on it. She loved her funny big brother. They didn't play much together but he was nice to her. She had one of her dolls in her hands and was brushing its hair, singing very quietly to herself. Earlier she'd had a chat with her doll, as young children do, providing both sides of the conversation. A Little Mouse doesn't sing loud outside the house they'd agreed in a whispered chat.

Toby had been looking vacant but had been doing a lot of thinking about his fathers comments on Weird Al. He'd not enjoyed English lessons so far at school, his teacher was a dragon. He'd some appreciation of words through all of the music he listened to, but he was now realising words could be fun in other ways. "You're one letter away from Free." he said, looking at Fred, a smile on his face.

Fred was about to respond when his hand twitched, more violently than it had at the Hawkins home. "What is wrong with Niska?" Fred asked.

"What's wrong with you?" Mattie replied, looking down at this hand, her voice sounding caring not sarcastic. It twitched again.

"Before David Elster gave us consciousness we were standard synthetics. We have a life expectancy in singles digits. To be recycled like other household appliances when we've broken down. Old age."

"Mia's the oldest of all of you, she doesn't have any problems does she?"

Fred frowned, "Not that I am aware of, but she had gone back to Persona Synthetics before Joe bought her, Anita. I would expect Persona to have given her an overhaul."

"So you can have issues fixed, like we might have a hip operation when we're old?"

"Like your private surgery. As long as someone can fund it, yes."

Fred stood up and walked away from the circle. Moments later he was back. "I have done a sweep of the area. Nothing has been left around that could link back to yourselves."

Laura thanked Fred, drawing attention to themselves again needed to be avoided whenever possible. "How do we get you home without you drawing attention to your.."

Toby cut in before she could finish, "Yourself. We need to work on you. A disguise." he glanced across to Laura, "Sorry mum", then looked back to Fred. "You've got two options. Full on synth, walk like one, talk like one, play synth dumb. Or you learn to be more human."

Fred misunderstood Toby's suggestion, "I already have an IQ that exceeds most humans."

Sophie put on her posh voice, "I am a little girl and I do understand Toby. That is how you would say it, is it not Fred?". Fred nodded, a puzzled look on his face.

Mattie understood what Sophie was getting at, "That's part of the problem Fred. Most humans don't talk like that, we join words together, take lazy short cuts. Don't instead of do not, we've instead of we have, I'm instead of I am. By using the longer form you'll make people think you're either very well educated, 'posh' or a synth. Did you notice how Karen talked?"

Fred understood, "I will listen to others and adapt my speech accordingly".

"I'll" corrected Mattie.

"I'll" echoed Fred.

Joe joined in, "You really don't want to take the dumb synth option, there's too much hostility at the moment towards synths. It was smash clubs a while back, now there are reports of a few people doing some nasty things with chemicals thrown in breakable bottles. Let's just say it results in rapid fluid loss and system failure. All the sites that post the formula are quickly shut down but for each one taken down a new one pops up. Nobody has a neutralising solution yet. And even if they did the reaction to the chemicals is said to be so fast there'd be little time to do anything, unless you already had it in your hands, ready to use."

Fred's expression went blank as he calculated chemical mixes from his database of household products many humans kept. There were some results he thought the Hawkins would find disturbing, so he kept the data to himself.

~~~

Mattie shifted her weight about several times which got an odd look from her mother. "Bum going numb." she explained. "What about looks. Synths don't wear earrings, watches, glasses, lip or nose rings, have tattoos or beards. Ok Leo's an exception to that rule but he's a bit different. A woolly hat on a warm day looks out of place. We pick up on tiny clues subconsciously, so it would only need a few small changes," She reached into her bag, "these are magnetic ear studs. They sit either side of the ear lobe and the magnets hold them together. No skin breaks and fluid leaks. May I?"

Fred agreed and Mattie got to her knees and started fitting a pair. Before she could position them properly Fred's eyes rolled upward, the pupils vanished and he fell backwards with a thud as the back of his head hit the ground.

"What have you done!" cried Sophie, sure something terrible had happened.

"I'm not hurt" said Fred, eyes still white and blank, "I don't have an inner ear like you for balance. I have an electronic multi-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, the magnets must be extremely strong."

"I'm so sorry!" cried Mattie bending down to remove them, "they do have rare-earth magnets."

Seconds later his pupils roll back into view and he sits up. "No harm done" he says with a smile towards Sophie. "Our eyes are able to adapt in ways yours can not."

"Can't." Joe corrected.

"Can't." acknowledged Fred, "So in theory I could wear any pair of glasses and my eyes would adapt to the prescription."

Mattie was still recovering from the shock of Fred's fall and thud, "You could have told us that earlier!"

"What about walking?" asked Joe.

"Good point. When you move it's very..", she paused looking for the right word, "efficient. We don't move like that."

"But I only have a finite amount of power per charge, I cannot, can't, 'snack' on the move like you all do to top up. I have to use it carefully, not do anything unnecessary. When I was with the others in the forest Leo had us bring a petrol generator. I can't carry one of those around with me."

"If you could would you move differently?" asked Sophie, "I could teach you to dance."

Fred smiled warmly, "I'd like that very much thank you Sophie, if it was possible."

Mattie's eyes widened with the excitement of a solution rapidly formed on the spot. Eureka moments like the one she'd just had gave her a big buzz. "Remember the adverts that came up while we were watching YouTube Toby?" Mattie asked, "There was one with that singer charging a phone while she recorded in the studio."

He nodded, "Rita Ora. Samsung something." He hadn't paid much attention to the phone, he had a good smartphone and a spare already thanks to the last upgrade, but the singer, Rita, she was hot! He wandered if anyone had noticed the small print of her he'd put up in his room next to his Laura Whitmore poster. His mind drifted. He'd been a fan of 'I'm a Celebrity', an even bigger fan of 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!' He'd sent in a video with him and Sophie in hats with corks messing around in front of some big ferns and got a signed postcard from Laura for their effort. It was the one with her in a lovely white textured dress. Despite the more racy images of her on the web he really loved this one. He dreamed of her being his girl next door. The manager at the local Snappy Snaps had scanned it for him and printed it out poster sized. He's used some cool software Mattie might understand to stop it going blocky when making it bigger. Something to do with fractals. It suddenly dawned on him the confusion it would create if she became his girlfriend, with two Lauras in the house at times. A slight smile crossed his face. His friend John at school had started a conversation with 'Blondes, brunettes or redheads?'. At the time he'd said blondes, but Anita had changed that. She was beautiful. It wasn't just about her looks he thought, it was the way she spoke too. He'd got curious as to how soft synths were, being a synthetic skin over mechanical body, had been close to finding out when Anita had woken from charge sleep mode.

"Toby? Helloooo, you still with us?? ... " Mattie called, " ... CRUSTY!!"

His mind snapped back to the crypt. "Sorry."

Mattie continued, "It used a system without wires, could we make something like that, only much bigger?"

"The electronics lab at school might have everything. And if not Maplin down the road."

"The recycle centre has a skip full of old electronics, including the bits Persona don't take back when people return synths, lots of charging cables. I reckon we could adapt the plug on one to be low profile, right angled. Like the plug on your headphones Toby. Fred could have it plugged in with the cable under his clothes, no bump. With a big battery in a rucksack and wireless charging thing on his back and in the padding of the rucksack. He could pop it on and off without drawing any attention with wires."

"Awesome!" exclaimed Fred, getting hoots of laughter from the whole Hawkins family. He was getting the hang of language changes.

~~~

Once they all settled down he raised a concern, "Carrying a big battery will drain my power faster."

Joe thought it still worth while, "If the extra power needed to walk more like us and carry the battery comes from the battery, your time between full charges wouldn't change, surely?"

Fred thought for a few milliseconds weighing up the pros and cons and nodded, "I think you're right."

Toby checked his watch for the date, some of his friends were still on holiday, "We can practice more moves back at the house when I've been able to get some friends to help make the circuits. We can do some now, make sure you have a full charge before we go."

Fred looked around. "Has anyone noticed a mains socket? Or a charging cable? I've seen neither and I'm at 30%."

Joe got his wallet out. "I'm not technical wizz like you kids but I'm guessing you can start the rucksack charger thing and just miss out the wireless bit in the middle for the moment?"

Toby looked at Mattie, then Joe, then Fred. "Batteries will be low voltage. When you charge at night it's mains voltage isn't it?"

Fred turned, "It is. We can charge off lower voltages using a car adapter but it takes a lot longer. I don't think it would be of much use."

"Maplin do 12volt batteries and chargers. We had one of their sales brochures a few days ago, they've got a 12v to 240v mains car adapter on offer at the moment. They do spare synth charge cables too now".

Mattie looked cross "Was that addressed to me?"

"Yes, but you'd left it on the kitchen table. It's just a sales brochure, not a love letter from Harun!"

Joe cut in. "What about tools?"

"They have those too" Mattie replied, still scowling at Toby.

Joe stood up. "Right then. Mattie, Toby, you and I are taking a walk."

Laura got up too. "Would you mind if I went instead? I've drunk far too much water."

~~~

Fred, Sophie and Joe talked about the moment Fred and the others had all linked up and got the consciousness enabling program. Sophie asked if it was like sharing a dream.

"That's the closest thing I can liken it too."

"Did it have puppies and unicorns and dinosaurs?" she asked.

Fred laughed, "No Sophie, nothing like that, just the six of us. Your brother said I was one letter away from free. I first thought that he'd been talking about a piece of writing, like the code, I couldn't think of what that letter may say. I now realise that the letter is a letter of the alphabet."

Sophie held out her left hand and counted off five letters then spelt the words. "A. B. C. D. E. F. R. E. D. F. R. E. E. Oh Cool!" Saying the letters A. B. C reminded her of a song she'd had Toby download for her. She reached over to her bag, unzipping the front pocket. She pulled out a tiny iPod nano and its white earbuds and went to hand it to Fred. "Mummy and Daddy got me this for Christmas but you can borrow it for a bit."

"I don't think our taste in music would be the same thank you Sophie."

Sophie put on a serious face, "You don't need to listen to it, just look like you are."

"A disguise? I think that's a great idea, thank you". Fred experimented with the earbuds. He'd used over the ear headphones at the Elster mansion to listen to David Elster's classical LP collection, but never put something small in his ears.

Sophie walked over to show him, "You put this bit in so it points forward. L one on the left, R on the right." As she'd said it she'd waved one arm then the other. She stopped, put her head to one side as she worked something out then turned her back to Fred and repeated the "L one on the left, R on the right" and arm movements. 

~~~

Fifteen minutes later Laura, Toby and Laura returned with carrier bags and McDonalds. "We thought you might be getting hungry."

Joe looked at the other bags, "What else did you get?"

Toby rattled off a list. It included a soldering iron that ran off cigarette lighter gas. Mattie lay on the ground and set to work with a craft knife carefully cutting away the moulded plastic around the plug. Toby was using some electrical tape to strap a number of batteries together. He had lengths of wire cut ready to link them all up to the car 12/240 adapter. It was quite big, they'd got what the salesman said was a 300 watt inverter. The next one up was way too big. Toby put down the role of tape and reached for the wire terminal crimper, "The staff said they keep all of the batteries topped up, so we should be able to get this lot working soon."

"Shit!"

Laura's heart skipped a beat, Mattie was using a razor sharp scalpel. Mattie rolled over and sat up, reached for the carrier bag. "I've sliced through one of the wires."

She fishes around in the bag and pulled out two spares, dropped one back in.

~~~

Laura watched her children at work. Yes they fought at times, but who's kids didn't? She was proud of what they were doing, coming together to help Fred like this. She watched as Mattie got to work on the second lead, her legs up behind her in an X, absent-mindedly tapping one foot against the other, a look of total concentration on her face. Toby was busy adding more wires to the block of batteries. Soph was standing next to the seated Fred, iPod in her hands going through her small music collection while he listened. Any human adult would have been getting agitated by her play-list by now she thought, but Fred politely carried on listening. She smiled warmly at her husband who smiled back. Joe moved to sit next to her, putting one arm around her. They sat together watching in silence.

Mattie managed to strip the plug of all outer plastic so that all was left was the metal cylinder, pins inside and wires coming out the end. She bent them into a 90 degree angle, checking to see how long the plug tip to cable bend would be. "Can someone throw me the glue?" she called.

Joe rolled forward onto knees and one hand, reached into the bag with the other. "Which one Matts? Epoxy or superglue?"

"Epoxy please." The packet of glue dropped and slid to a halt by her side. She picked it up and checked the instructions. "It says this sets hard in five minutes, is fully cured in twenty four hours. Fred, can we check plug lengths please?"

Fred thanked Sophie for letting him listen to her music, handed her the eye buds.

"I'll look after your new disguise" she said, slipping them into a pocket. Fred got up and moved to sit by Mattie.

"Mind if you stand for a bit please Fred?" she asked, standing on her knees.

"Alright", Fred pulled up his jumper and shirt at the side to reveal the charging port.

"It's not connected to anything at the moment, will plugging it in do anything?" she asked.

"No, only if there's a voltage difference will my circuits enable."

Mattie started to insert the plug and felt it being pulled by a magnetic field. A few more millimetres and it was pulled in hard with a click. She moved back a little and observed how the cable might bend and route. Mattie then looked across Fred's hip to see how she needed to set the glue. "You all make plugging in one of these look so effortless, as if it's a connection that could easily fall out."

Fred looked down at the wire now snaking off towards his back. "Power and precise movement control make it look that way."

"And now I've removed the plugs outer casing I've got no easy way to pull it out other than with the wires."

"It's not a problem Mattie. Once we have some charge we can temporarily lesson the field using a small coil around the socket. Part of the fail-safe charging design. It should be okay now."

Mattie cautiously pulled and the plug came out without resistance. "Tobs, roughly ten minutes and we'll be ready to hook it all up. Toby!"

~~~

Toby's mind had been elsewhere again, his battery block building completed. He partially turned to ask Fred a question. "Synth fluid, is it all blue, like Niska's and Max's?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

Toby turned fully. "Mum got new shower gel, it was as dark blue as Niska and Max's fluid, just felt wrong to use. So I used some of Matilda's."

"Thought you smelt a bit flowery."

Toby was surprised at the comment and paused for a really cutting remark or insult to follow. Nothing came, she just continued working on the plug.

"Our fluid doesn't foam up like shower gel. Made with a unique combination of chemical markers, so it can be traced back to a synthetic just like DNA in your blood."

Laura's ears pricked up. "So you're saying that if you'd all left the house before Hobb arrived they could have worked out Max was on our dining table if we'd not washed it thoroughly?"

Fred nodded. "Only with Niska's donation they'd see two lots of markers. Knowing it was likely to be one or more of us they'd soon work out the pairing. Two random synths and it would take a lot of searching to work out the combinations."

Laura didn't like the sound of that. "So knowing the markers someone could frame a synth?"

"Correct." 

~~~

"All done, you ready Toby?" Mattie was by Fred's side again, cable attached, mains plug in hand.

"Two seconds." Toby picked up the rucksack and placed the batteries at the bottom. They'd got a cardboard top taped on to help protect the wires and battery terminals. He plugged the heavy duty cable from the inverter into a socket that had been soldered to the ends of the battery wires. He flipped a switch on the front of the inverter and a small green LED came on. "Ready".

Mattie fitted the plug and looked up at Fred.

"It's working," he acknowledged, "I'm getting a good fast charge too thanks to my circuits running in mains mode."

An hour later and they were on their way.

THE DAY AFTER THAT

Sophie trudged down the stairs, "Mummy I can't find Arabella."

Laura looked puzzled, "Who's Arabella?"

"My favourite doll. The one I had when we helped Fred and I played with Niska."

Joe walked into the kitchen from the living room, "We'll buy you another one."

Sophie looked cross. "You'd replace Arabella with another like you'd replace Anita?"

Joe looked flustered, didn't know what to say yet, he shouldn't get such things from his young daughter should he? "Ok, we'll find her, it's not as if I had anything planned for today. Where did you last have her?"

"Daddy, I said, when we helped Fred."

"The crypt?". In his head he said to himself 'Oh great, the travel costs will only be about three times as much as a new doll, but what the hell..' "Come on then, let's go find her."

On getting to the crypt Joe found it amazingly clean. The dust in some areas had looked like it had been there for centuries. Now it looked like you could eat a meal off it. But all of the big things they'd left behind, like the tarp, were more or less as they'd left them.

Smack bang in the middle of the floor was Sophie's doll. Sat on an A4 piece of paper that had been folded in half. Sophie picked them both up and handed the paper to her father. He unfolded it to see two words. 'For Sophie'. A shiver ran down his spine. Was this Hobbs doing? Or Niskas?

Sophie brushed the dolls hair a few times, shook the brush and put everything in her pockets.


	3. Chapter 3

Mattie was the last through the door, closed it, then leaned against it to pull her trainers off, "Haha, well that was interesting, not sure I'd want to do it again!"

"Me neither" agreed Laura with a laugh.

Fred looked at them all, "I did warn you that extra movement consumes more power."

Toby pulled the batteries from the rucksack and sighed, feeling let down, "So much for them all being kept topped up. Either the batteries were close to drained before your top up in the crypt Fred or the amp meter is giving a false reading."

Mattie reached out a hand, "Either way we should have had quite a bit of power left. I'll put them on charge."

Joe smiled at Laura, "I reckon that couple were twice as drunk as you at Mike and Sarah's party, if not worse!"

She smiled back, "They'll have a monster of a hangover to remember in the morning. Hopefully they won't recall Fred going from 'human' to Peter Crouch Robot to standard synth just as they were passing! Whipping out the cash and shouting 'You've won the bet, stop taking the Mickey you show off!' and doing the robot yourself totally fooled them."

Sophie giggled, "Mattie you promised we could watch the videos of Peter on YouTube, please Mattie, please please please!"

Laura still had a 'happy glow' buzz from their moment of fun, she hadn't laughed so hard in years. Thankfully it had been close to home but not so close anyone would have recognised them. The back of her head hurt from laughing so hard. "I'm sorry Fred, we shouldn't laugh at you, it's unkind."

Fred grinned, "I can fully understand why it would have been found amusing. My internal systems were telling me I had the power to do the moves you'd taught me, the rest of me just couldn't do it.", grin became smile, "We don't normally move around a lot while on charge, maybe being plugged into the inverter confused my power systems. I'll have to study a bit, I'm sure the problem can be overcome. Had I been able to see myself from your position I think I too would have laughed. My mind was a bit preoccupied at the time!"

Laura looked at Fred and thought to herself 'If you can genuinely laugh at yourself then that's all the proof of consciousness I really need'. She looked at her little mouse, "It's late, time for bed!"

Sophie wasn't in the mood for bed yet, "Can I watch at least one with Mattie, please!"

Joe went to reply but Laura got in first, "Okay, but bedtime as soon as it's over."

~~~

Mattie and Sophie were looking at a list of videos from the YouTube search, Sophie had the remote.

"Not that one, it's too short" whispered Mattie, knowing Sophie wanted to be up with the rest of the family a little longer. They flicked through the list and found a compilation video. Perfect!

~~~

THE NEXT EVENING.

Toby's mobile rings, the call display says it's Danny. "Dan, you're not back are you? It's what, like 3AM in Australia?"

"Toblerone!! Yeah mate, whole family's back. Mum got bitten by a wolf spider and said she'd had enough of oz wildlife. Got some of yous at duty free too, nice big bar, know you love the stuff. Whasup?"

"Wondered if you could help me make a large charging coil? Like in the Rita advert only bigger"

Danny teased him, "You're sick crazy in love with that girl!"

Toby was glad Danny couldn't see his expression. "The circuit Dan, can you help or not?"

"Sure brov, I'll get some bits and bike over"

"It's got to be a lot bigger and run at 240 volts", Toby warned, "we've got a friend who's going on a walking holiday, wants to take his synth with him."

There was a slight pause from Danny, "For real? Brov why can't people leave them things behind for once! I'm a bit jet slagged so it will take me a few mins to remember where the stuff is. Laters."

Before Toby could say anything Danny ended the call. 'Why does he talk like that on the phone?' Toby mused.

~~~

Before Danny arrived Fred needed to be given a briefing. If asked he was to say he belonged to Leo and was not to reveal that he had consciousness. Or do any of his new moves. "Your request was anticipated. I have now got what you would call a 'software switch'. Once told to act synth I will not revert back until you give me the all clear via a pass phrase. Please state what you would like as a phrase followed by the word Done."

"Crusty and The Whitmore sitting in a tree" called Mattie, dashing behind the sofa out of Toby's reach.

"You cow!"

Mattie smiled, "Done! Well it's not one that will easily be guessed by anyone outside this house!". She ducked as Toby launched every cushion he could grab at her. Not that hard though as he actually liked the idea of sitting in a tree with Laura, just didn't want to admit it to his big sister.

"Ten word pass phrase accepted" said Fred.

Toby stopped and thought for a moment, "Ten? How'd you get ten? Oh, 'You cow', ha!"

~~~

Fourty five minutes later Danny arrived on his bike, doing a fast and furious skid onto the damp drive. All part of the bravado. Toby had been waiting patiently in the hall and opened the door just as Danny went for the door bell.

"Tobs Brov! That lovely sister of yours in too?" Danny asked with a wink.

"Yes Dan, Mattie's here, she's going to be helping."

"Sweet! Which reminds me..", he fished into his bag. "The monster! Don't scoff it all at once."

Toby didn't understand what Danny liked about his sister. Danny's bedroom walls were covered in posters of rappers and girls in bikinis. Even his own parents couldn't remember if there was paint or wallpaper beneath. Dan was a spotty white kid. Ghostly white. Even though their three week holiday was cut short he should have got some colour, but no. He must have stayed under cover the whole time. Toby couldn't understand it. Why travel for so many hours to then hide under a rock?

Laura met them in the lounge. "Hello Daniel, how's your mother, Toby tells me she was bitten on holiday?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders and sighed, "Think she's fine. It didn't get a proper bite, it was the amount of creepy crawlers that really freaked her out."

Mattie walked into the room and Danny's mood picked up, he greeted her with a "Hello Matilda" the attempts to talk like one of his rapper heroes dropped. Mattie usually got called that when she was in trouble, 'Matilda Hawkins get down here now' style and didn't like it. But she didn't seam to mind it from Danny.

'Why doesn't she respond?', thought Toby.

"Hello Daniel" she replied a moment later with a flirty smile. Laura had been looking at Danny and missed it.

Toby had seen it, "But your...", he then thought it best to stay out of his sisters relationship issues and shut up before he was told to.

~~~

Karen was sat on her desk looking at the local paper when Pete came in.

"I've got the results back on those hairs. Apparently I've been given a new nickname by the lab boys."

She looked up with a warm smile, "Really? What's that then dear?"

"DS Mattel. Turns out those hairs are synthetic. From a kids Barbie doll! And we probably know who's don't we?"

"I'm sorry Pete, they looked just like Niska's"

"The walking talking conscious killer Barbie Doll! Only the ones you found were off a plastic doll even a crazed killer would find hard to use as a weapon. What a day! I'm going for a kebab and a few pints. Though not necessarily in that order, you coming?"

~~~

Danny and Mattie had carefully wound two large coils with heavy copper wire held in place at various spots with glue from a hot glue gun. "Think it's ready" said Dannny admiring his work. One of the neatest jobs he'd done for a long time. Maybe having Matilda sat next to him had slowed him down. In a good way.

Toby got up from the sofa where he'd been sat with Sophie watching more YouTube. "What shall we try first?"

Danny looked around the room, "We don't want to blow up your synth, how about that lamp in the corner?"

Toby walked over and unplugged it. "Leo's synth, he's just on loan while we get this working, here you go mate."

Danny took the plug off and joined it to one of the coils with a bit of terminal strip. He got some side cutters and snipped the strip in two, wired a lead to it then the plug from the lamp. "Want to see some magic Sophie?"

Sophie jumped up to see. She gave Danny one of her 'knowing' looks mixed with a grin, "All children like magic, stickers and pushing buttons, didn't you know?"

"If you could do the honours?", Danny held out the plug for Toby who was closer to the mains extension cable on the other side of the table. He picked up the coil wired to the lamp and slowly moved it closer to the coil on the table. Slowly the lamp got brighter as the coils aligned.

"Magic!" exclaimed Sophie, "They're not touching but the light's on! How did you do that?"

"I'll let Matilda explain a bit later Sophie."

Toby was concerned, "It's working, but we've got a problem. Listen."

Mattie turned off the TV, "Sorry Soph."

Sure enough you could hear it. The coils were humming at a nice 50hz.

"When Leo's taking in a beautiful landscape he's not going to want that ruining the silence." Toby left the room to find his father.

Toby explained the problem. Joe stood there running his fingers through his beard thinking about solutions. There were a few 'Hmm. No' as he dismissed a few options. "Remember those paperweights we made with some of the leaves you liked to collect Toby? Where did we put the resin?"

Toby knew, he'd seen it only the week before when hunting for the small tin of 3-in-1 oil to lubricate his bike chain. "It's right at the back left of the kitchen cupboard under the sink, two tins."

A few minutes later Joe was back with one tin. "This stuff must air cure without an agent as the tin we'd opened was set rock solid. This one sounds good.", he gave it a shake. "What you're building is in effect a 1:1 transformer without a metallic core."

Mattie was amazed, "When did you learn about electronics?"

"When I was your age the Internet didn't exist. We couldn't kill time surfing the web like you lot. So my school pals helped me put a band together."

"A band? You?", Mattie was learning something new about her father, "You've never mentioned a band before?"

Joe pulled a face, "Nobody wanted to listen to our Punk music."

"Punk?!" at that point Mattie burst out laughing hysterically and lost control, literally fell off her chair.

Joe looked over the table to see her double bent in fits of laughter. "Joey Rotten", he called out.

Mattie's laughter got more intense. "No, stop, please, it hurts" she called, clutching her stomach. Tears were flowing. The laughter was infectious and soon everyone had joined in.

Laura came in from the garden, "What's the joke, must have been a good one?"

Mattie was still laughing, "Joey Rotten", she shouted and started laughing out of control again. Between laughs she got out the words "Someone... knock... me out.. it hurts ... so much."

The rest of the family and Danny watched Mattie for a full five minutes slowly calming down. Danny walked over and held out a hand. Mattie took it and pulled herself into a seated position.

She put her hand up to signal 'wait a moment' while she got her breathing under control. "Sorry Dad, but imagining you with a mohican was just too much."

Laura put her hand on his shoulder, "Do tell."

"As I was about to say before Mattie's fits of laughter, I played lead guitar, our bass player Simon was in the habit of kicking the amps over. It's was a punk thing. Only the transformers inside were heavy, one ripped itself clean off the circuit board. My father bought me a soldering iron and over the months I taught myself amp repair."

Toby hadn't followed it all, "So what's that got to do with cores?"

Joe went on to explain how the core helps focus the magnetic field so energy is transferred more efficiently from primary to secondary coil. "But we can experiment with that later, if needed, getting rid of the hum is our current priority. Sophie can we borrow your plasticine please?"

She says "Ok", jumps of the settee and runs to her room.

~~~

Joe had used Sophie's plasticine to make a dam which he'd then covered in cling film. He'd used the hot glue gun to stick two cotton threads across each coil which he was now taping to the bottom of some water bottles. He slowly pulled the bottles away from the dam and the cotton went taught, pulling the coil up from the table. "I'll make another for the second coil and we can then pour the resin in, it should flow into the gaps. When it sets it will hold the wires firmly in place removing the slight movement between them and kill the hum."

"Cool Mr Hawkins, so that's the problem fixed?", asked Danny.

"We might have swapped one problem for another" Joe admitted. "The coils may get hot, and the resin won't like heat for long and would crack"

"Let me add a little something then", Danny fished around in his box of bits and pulled out a resistor, "a thermal resistor, like they use in 3D printers."

Everyone looked at him blankly.

"It will allow us to create a small control circuit that monitors the temperature and regulate the power if is starts to get too hot." He bent it's wires up to form a U and used the hot glue gun to pin it in place at one end so it's body was against the side of the coil. "There, Ready."

After getting things prepped for the second coil Joe mixed the resin and agent and poured it slowly and carefully into the moulds.

Laura looked at her watch "It's late, I think Daniels mother will be wondering where he's got to."

Danny agreed, "I should go."

Toby asked "What are you doing tomorrow Dan?"

Danny grinned, "Sitting here with Matilda and Sophie making a circuit for this thing, what you doing?"

Toby smiled, "Same."

Joe told them that the resin would take 24 hours to set and cool.

"Ask your mother if it's okay to have dinner with us, you can then spend the afternoon if you want"

"Sure, thanks Mrs H."

~~~

Mattie and Toby were seeing Danny out. As he put his trainers on Mattie says "You know you can call me Mattie like everyone else?"

Danny looked hurt. "Have you seen the film Matilda? You may not have magical powers to send teachers out of windows but I've seen you work your magic while sat in front of other windows." Mattie frowned, not getting his riddle. "Your coding and hacking skills."

"Oh that", she blushed slightly.

"I'll be needing some of that to help code the controller we'll build tomorrow. Programmed an Arduino?"

Mattie had, the school was using them in Design & Technology classes to control little robot cars. The younger years were doing the same but her class were adding all sorts of 'smarts', as the teacher called it. Not AI but more sophisticated logic. Danny and Mattie were both doing the subject but due to the others they'd picked where doing it at different times in the week. "Sure."

"Sweet, I'm great at the wiring, crap at coding. We'll make a good team". He looked at Toby then Mattie, "Laters."

They both watched him peddle away into the night.

Toby couldn't resist, "Fancy Dan?"

Mattie kept looking at where she last seen him, "a bit, he's different."

"So's Harun and Leo."

Mattie turned to look him in the eyes, very close up. Toby would have backed up if he wasn't already so close to the wall. "You like Rita and Laura, Ariana too I suspect. And Anita, can't forget our temporary synth now can we. Any different?"

"Guess not." he replied, while thinking 'You've been snooping.'

~~~

They were just finishing lunch when the door bell rang. Sophie jumped up from her chair "Danny's back!"

Toby got up from the table, "I'll let him in."

Mattie got up and reached out to receive Joes plate, "I'll help clear the table." "Rinse them and put them straight in the dishwasher please Matts" Laura asked.

Danny got a number of boxes out of his rucksack and looked at Fred across the room. "Not doing much is he?"

"He's low on power, resting. We want to see that this thing will recharge him properly."

"I was going to make a little printed circuit board but got one of these Adruino micro rushed over by drone with Amazon Prime", he held up a tiny little board.

Mattie recognises, "Mr Ballard showed us one of those, though he had us use the Mega for the cars. He'd got a load of Chinese copies off eBay."

Joe was curious, "They've started using drones have they? They were on the news only last week, arguments about air space use and line of sight operator control." Danny had been following it all closely, "They've done a deal with Persona Synthetics, the synths in the area help watch them and communicate with it over WiFi. They've been able to drop the need for a human operator."

Joe looked worried, "Sounds all a bit too Skynet to me."

From their expressions the kids clearly hadn't made the connection with Terminator films. Probably just as well.

~~~

Laura got up, "I'm going into town to do some shopping, anyone need anything or want to come along?"

Sophie jumped up "Can I come?"

"I'll come too," Joe added, "careful with the coils, they may look quite hard already but will be very soft inside and tacky still. And hot."

Danny nodded, "Sure Mr H, thanks."

~~~

It had been a while since Sophie had been out with her mother and father with no brother or sister along too. "Can we get some ice-cream please?", she had one of her angelic looks Joe found hard to say no to.

Joe picked up the house keys, "We can, come on then. Let's walk, we can get ice-creams at the village cafe, you like the cones they do with chocolate in the bottom."

Sophie gave her fathers legs a hug, "Thanks Daddy!"

~~~

The three of them walked along the path side by side holding hands, Sophie in the middle. Every now and then Joe and Laura would step apart and pull their arms up, swinging Sophie. She was loving the attention. "Can I get the three scoops, mint, chocolate and vanilla please" she called out, part walking, part mid swing.

Laura laughed "That's a very grown up selection for a Little Mouse, what makes you think you'll like it?"

"Danny got Toby a Toblerone and Mattie some fancy vanilla mints, from the free shop at the airport, they both let me have some." She skipped along and had another swing on their arms.

"He did did he?" Laura was still getting used to the idea of Mattie becoming more of a young independent woman and no longer the girl she once was.

~~~

Her mind drifted back to when she herself started dating. There'd been a number of other boys, young men, before she'd met Joe. One was a bit messed up, having seen his parents she could understand why. She'd hoped he'd change but didn't. Much as it pained her she'd broken up the relationship. With the classic 'It's me, not you', not wanting to hurt his fragile feelings. Thankfully none of the parents of boys Mattie had spoken to so far had any obvious hang ups.

"Is that a yes mummy?"

Laura's mind returned to the task literally in hand and with Joe gave Sophie another swing as she shouted "YES!"

Getting a "Yipeeee" from Sophie.

~~~

Toby gently tapped the coil resin. "It's not that tacky now, should be good to experiment with soon."

Danny had been busy adding wires to the Arduino and solder tacked two crocodile clips onto two of the wires. "These are for the temperature sensing resistor," he screwed some terminal strip onto some other wires, "and these are for the MOSFET." Mattie and Toby looked over to see the big black component in his hand. "It's like an electric switch. The 'duino will be able to control the power that gets from the inverter to the coil, reduce the power if things get too hot. So Leo's synth will be able to get as good a charge as possible without it going into meltdown. I just need some of your magic Matilda to put the controller code together. We can copy-paste some bits from the Marlin temperature control firmware that runs 3D printers."

"I'll take your word for it, you lost me at mosfit" admitted Toby.

"MOSFET mate, think of Mos Eisley and Boba Fett", he maid a few action moves and Toby responded with Lightsaber moves, humming and whooshes.

Mattie rolled her eyes, "You boys and Star Wars!"

Danny moved sideways away from Mattie and looked her up and down. "You know what, straighten your hair and put it up and you'd make an awesome Leia Organa!"

"Who?"

The boys looked at each other in amazement, then at Mattie and said in unison "PRINCESS LEIA!"

"Fancy coming to ComicCon in October?" Danny added.

Mattie thought about if for a bit, in her mind she'd previously filed such events under 'For Sad Geeks' but maybe there was more too it. A bit of escapism and fun might do her some good and it could be a short break away from family and the Hobb problems. "Let me think about it for a bit. Where would I get a costume?"

The boys looked at each other again. Toby spoke, "You are Mattie, my sister, not some synth copy aren't you? Dan's mother is a professional seamstress, made Sophie's dress for the school play?"

"OMG! That was YOUR mum, crap, I've been thanking Dave for his mums help and he never once questioned it, so sorry Daniel!" Mattie's face looked like you could cook an egg on it having gone so red. "That dress was sooo beautiful! If she can make me a costume to the same standard I'm in!"

"Really?"

"Really"

Again in unison the boys replied, "Awesome!". They now had the closest thing to a responsible adult in the party as they were likely to get.

Toby was a little stunned. How long had it been since he'd seen his tomboy sister in a dress? "Now can we get on with this before the others return and ask us to clear the table for dinner?"

~~~

Laura, Joe and Sophie all came into the kitchen. "How's it coming along?" asked Laura, looking at all the tools and bits of wire on the table.

"Great Mrs H, Matilda's just uploading a new version of the controller code, we should be able to test in a few minutes."

Joe had taken his phone out, "We're back much later than we'd originally expected, who fancies a takeaway?"

Sophie's arm shot up into the air "Me!"

"You're not at school Sophie, you don't need to put your arm up here." Laura patted her on her head.

"But I'm a little mouse, sometimes people don't notice little mice."

Joe picked her up for a hug, "Well we notice this one," he looked around the room, "any preference?"

"Pizza", "Chinese", "Indian" came the replies.

"I quite fancied KFC" added Laura.

Joe grinned, "You're in luck, I'm in the mood to get the lot! Anyone want to help?"

To his surprise Toby did.

~~~

When they returned with bags of food the table was clear. "All working is it?"

Danny motioned to the kitchen worktop behind Joe, "We've got it all set up ready for a calibration test."

Joe turned to see it, the coils suspended above the kettle, a cooking thermometer strapped to the lot.

"We've got a real thermometer so we can take readings, we'll then make a conversion table of resistor value to temperature for Mattie's code."

"So your gizmo will know how warm things are getting moment by moment?"

"Yeah, that's it. We can back the power down a bit by controlling the MOSFET, turning it on and off real fast, so your synth doesn't get just on or off."

Toby corrected him again, "Leo's synth."

~~~

The family and Danny sat down to dinner, all picking from each other's too. Sophie put her head to one side. "I liked mint vanilla and chocolate. Potato wedges and mango sauce are nice too!"

The others laughed. Danny picked up one of the silver curry containers that still had some sauce left, "Want to try ham and pineapple pizza with curry sauce?"

Sophie shook her head lots, "Too hot! Too hot!"

~~~

After dinner they calibrated the circuit, Mattie added the data collected and updated the code one last time.

Danny looked around at them all, "Do you have anything a bit more power hungry that we can do the next test with?"

"How about the oven?" offered Laura.

"Bit too hungry Mrs H, the MOSFET isn't rated that high and would burn out."

"The Kettle any good? You've got the coil over it already"

"Brilliant, we'd have a feedback loop"

"A what?" asked Laura.

"A loop. The kettle heats the coil, when the coil gets to a set temperature it starts backing off the power which will reduce the steam. If it cools too much the power rises again producing steam to warm it up".

They spent the next thirty minutes watching the kettle being controlled by the circuit. "Who says a watched kettle never boils!" exclaimed Joe, "Comfortable doing it for real with Fred?"

They'd got Fred over and taped one coil to his back just between the shoulder blades, or where they thought his shoulder blades would be, they didn't really understand what was under the skin. Mattie plugged the cable from it into his charging socket. "Fred, we're about to start".

"Understood" said Fred, waiting for power.

Mattie flipped the switch on the inverter and controller. Their green status lights came on, the Arduino blinked a status light to confirm it was monitoring temperature. Danny had explained that the faster it blinked the hotter it was seeing the thermistor. Mattie moved the transmitting coil up towards the one on Fred's back. Fred made some very odd noises and his fingers and arms went dead straight.

"That didn't sound right" worried Danny.

"Not again!" Sighed Mattie.

"What again?"

In a hushed voice Toby said "This isn't the first time Mattie's zapped a synth with a magnetic field and got a surprise."

"I'm not deaf guys!"

~~~

After much experimenting they found the ideal location, just below the small of the back. A nice flat area that would be hidden by his trousers. They just had to pad the coil so no hard edges would show through his clothes. Laura and Mattie stitched the second coil into the lining of the rucksack right at the bottom. Fred could adjust the rucksack straps to fine tune the location until he found the sweet spot that gave maximum power into his charging circuits.

"Thanks Danny, Leo will be well happy."

"No probs matey," he gave Toby a gentle punch on the arm, "just make sure Mattie pops over to see mum for a measure up."

~~~

Laura rolled over in bed and placed her arm over Joe's chest. "What a weekend! I don't think the whole family's laughed like that for a very long time. We needed it. Thanks for coming out shopping with us", she wriggled forward and kissed Joe on the cheek.

"You're so welcome", he turned to kiss her back.

The only problem with roller coasters is that for every long climb upwards there's a fast drop after the peak. Unaware of what was to come the two had a really good nights sleep.

They'd need it.


	4. Chapter 4

The whole family were all sat around the dining table having another mixed up takeaway, laughing at a joke Sophie had cracked about Mr Patches. One second they were eating, the next the bright evening light had gone, food vanished, everything grey and ominous. The kids and Hobb turned to stare at Laura and started thumping their fists on the table. Hobb? Laura woke with a start and turned to see the bedside clock. 07:58. She lay there for a few seconds looking at the ceiling, aware of her pounding heart. Swimming. She'd set the alarm for 08:00 to get her up early enough for Sophie's morning lesson. Now wide awake she rolled over and turned it off before it could sound.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

Laura's heart jumped, "Joe! Wake up!" She leapt out of bed adrenalin pumping, body shaking and grabbed her dressing gown.

Joe was a heavy sleeper, still waking, a bit dazed, "What?"

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

Sophie came rushing into the room clutching Mr Patches. "Mummy Daddy someone's outside!" She jumped into their bed and hid under the covers.

Joe was now up and looked at his anxious wife, "Stay here with Sophie."

As he left the room she called "Be careful."

Mattie opened her door to see her father at the top of the stairs. He turned and motioned for her to stay put.

Joe was now almost the bottom of the stairs.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

He reached the front door and slipped the chain on. Whoever was on the other side must have had their ear to the door listening for activity between the banging.

"Mr Hawkins, is that you?"

Despite only meeting its owner briefly Joe recognised the voice and raised a hand to remove the chain.

"PLEASE! I need your help!" the voice cried with unmistakable pain.

As Joe opened the door Pete rushed in and spun around, so fast he had to grab his glasses before they fell. "Sorry to barge in Mr Hawkins, it's Karen, something's very wrong." Joe checked the street, it appeared empty. With his back to Pete as he closed the door he asked "Come into the kitchen".

He turned to see Pete, the man looked distraught, close to tears. "Want a quick coffee? Oh, and please, call me Joe." Before joining him in the kitchen Joe called upstairs, "Laura, it's DS Pete Drummond, someone's got Karen!"

Joe joined Pete in the kitchen.

Pete looked ashen "Loads of milk please, my nerves are shredded. I could do with a cuppa but also want to find Karen ASAP. I've been told Silas Capek's been released, if he gets his hands on her she's as good as dead."

Mattie and Laura came in, Sophie on Laura's hip in a tight hug.

"Someone's abducted Karen" Pete informed them.

Mattie glanced down at her Slate, thoughts of why flashing through her head.

Pete took off his glasses and wiped a tear.

Joe reached for one of the cupboards, "Tell you what, Mattie got these Christmas themed collectable cups from Starbucks last year, they've got plastic lids, we can drink on the way." He turned to his daughter, "You wouldn't mind would you Matts?"

Months ago she'd have objected, many things had changed. She didn't particularly like the man, but thinking about it didn't dislike him either. DS Drummond had taken a huge personal risk to help them. He was now part of the extended family she thought. Family of oddballs. Of which she was most certainly one. She smiled to herself. Cups. That was the least she could do. She shook her head, "Sure, lids are in the draw to the left."

Pete looked at Mattie, "Thanks, not so much milk then please Joe."

Joe handed him a cup with a reindeer design, "I'll drive, you look like you need a rest. Give me five to throw some clothes on."

Pete smiled, grateful for their response to his plight.

Joe stopped at the corridor, "Where are we heading?"

Pete looked suddenly terrified. "I dont' know". A couple of seconds later he added "I was hoping your daughter's computer skills might help." He turned to Mattie, "I can get you partial access details to a load of CCTV networks. You'd need to work out the authentication codes."

Mattie accepted the challenge, raising the Slate slightly to bring attention to it, "I'm armed and dangerous, definitely owe you one. I'll get changed quick too."

On her return to the kitchen she found Pete finishing off a list, copying them from his phone. "I'd have messaged them but I don't have your identity hiding mods in my phone."

Mattie smiled, "I'll sort your phone out when you return with Karen."

When. Not if. Apart from Karen he'd not got much help from anyone these past months, he was thankful for it. And the positive thinking, "Thank you Matilda."

"Call me Mattie."

~~~

Joe grabbed the car keys, "Until Matts can provide us with a better idea of location let's head towards the station. Mattie, message me as soon as you get even a rough idea."

"Sure Dad."

"Drive safely." called Sophie mimicking what her mother would usually say. Laura squeezed her a little tighter and kissed her head.

~~~

Laura stepped around the worktop, "Sophie you and I can get breakfast ready while Mattie works. Mattie, what would you like?"

Mattie looked almost guilty, eyes not moving from the screen, "I'd kill for a fryup."

Toby strolled into the room, still in his PJs, rubbing his eyes. "Did someone say fryup?"

Laura sat Sophie on the worktop for a moment while she checked the fridge, "Your father's had to pop out, could you bike over to the shops quickly and get us some eggs and a can of beans? Oh, and sausages. I'll write a quick list."

Toby looked down at his dressing gown and PJs. For a moment he pictured his dressing gown flapping behind him in the wind as he sped down the hill on his bike. He did a 180 and headed to his room to dress, thoughts of a good breakfast spurring him on.

Laura gently lowered Sophie to the floor. "Sorry Soph, looks like we'll miss swimming today."

"I know Mummy, Daddy's got the car helping the man."

"Peter." Laura replied.

Without lifting her head from the work she was otherwise engrossed in Mattie said "Pete."

~~~

Joe turned on the cars AC to clear the mist forming on the inside of the windscreen. Pete explained as quickly as he could how Karen's views on synth life had changed, how they'd got together after their false start and were now a couple. Joe let him do all the talking, it sounded like he'd needed another man to confide in for quite a while. Pete's own views on synths had changed too, he felt embarrassed to have called them 'Dollies'. Watching Sense8 his old thoughts had been challenged. "I was shocked at some of the stuff shown in that series, which is something, given the things I've witnessed in work before the transfer to the synth job. I knew it went on, but sometimes you need to be shown the same something in a different light to get it. Known what I mean?"

Joe just nodded and focused on driving.

"Can't say I've ever been so challenged by a TV program before. It left me thinking it's the passion and humanity within that counts right? It then occurred to me, does it really matter how or where you came into the world, if you're made by some God, nature or man? Skin colour, sexual preference, all irrelevant. None of us get to choose the body we're born into, where, who our parents will be. It's what and how we do with what we're given that counts."

Joe was surprised at Pete's thinking, made a mental note to check out the series. He glanced across to look at Pete, found Peter looking blankly through the windscreen. "What if we'd come into consciousness in a synth body?" Joe asked.

"You stole my next line" Pete exclaimed, his gaze unfaltering. "She was wearing deep red Max Factor colour Elixir lipstick. The lab boys matched it to some on a tissue I'd seen her use and bin at lunch time. They move like the wind when it's for one of our own. Though to be honest it doesn't take a scientist to match that colour." He looked out the passenger window, hiding the emotion he knew would be showing on his face, "I'd stepped out of our room to use the copier. Two bloody minutes! When I return she'd gone, her purse and bag on the floor, change from the purse scattered everywhere!" Emotions checked he looked forward again. "I ran back into the corridor and spotted lipstick on the wall at roughly hip height. A trail. I think her hands had been tied. But it was proof she was still active and walking. I followed it all the way to the stairwell. A broken heel from one of her shoes was near the emergency exit at the bottom and the worn down lipstick. I think WAP have her."

Joe glanced across, "We Are People?", he looked uncertain, "Sounds more like Hobb to me, can't you report this?"

Peter shook his head. "Hobb's not stupid enough to abduct Karen right under our noses, in the station, he's got far too much at risk. You know he's the CEO of a new Synth startup now don't you?"

"I hadn't"

"I reckon he's been feeding WAP info, getting them to do some of his dirty work, stuff his government and corporate paid monkeys can't soil their hands with. And what would I report, my partner that everyone, including me, had thought was human is really a conscious synth, stolen by a power crazy friend of the Commissioner?"

~~~

Mattie had started a distributed dictionary password check against the CCTV around the station and had one of the remote PC strike gold. Whoever had set it up needed a talking too, simple word based passwords were terribly easy to crack. She'd found footage of Karen being escorted out of the station, being encouraged to get into a van. The driver had made the mistake of doing a U turn making the registration plate visible. Thanks to some temporary average speed check cameras around roadworks at a dual carriageway the van had been logged speeding east bound. "Thank God for stupid people" she said as Laura placed a plate of breakfast by her side. She looked up at her shocked mother, "Not you mum, I've got a good idea of where Karen might be". She put down her phone, 'Sending' on the screen. She opened a new tab and went to Google Maps, switching to Satellite view.

~~~

Joe's phone chimed, message from Mattie. He picked it off the dash and passed it to Pete asking, "Could you", not taking his eyes off the road now they were in heavier traffic.

Peter read out the postcode Mattie had sent. "That's miles in the opposite direction."

Joe cursed, scanned around for somewhere to turn. "Can you help with speeding tickets? I can get on the bypass, but it's got several new cameras up".

Pete smiled briefly, "They're not a problem, I know the synth unit doing the installs, they're not due to be commissioned for a couple of weeks now. WAP ran two of the team down, we've got them in custody. It's put them well behind schedule. Just don't go too crazy, we want to get there and help Karen."

~~~

Karen was aware that she was somewhere new. Her last memories were of sitting in a van, her arms tied behind her back. She'd turned off sensory data to block the constant stream of data about the thin cord wanting to cut into her wrists. She realised that was why she'd not felt one of her captors touching her under the chin to turn her off. She looked down to see her hands resting on her lap. She turned sensory data back on only to hear someone moving behind her. She turned her head slightly to listen.

"Please don't move" a voice asked.

"Hobb?"

"Yes, please listen. Sorry for the methods, I need your help. Your phone is on the table to the side, you're free to use it, walk away, or both, no strings attached."

"Or tracking bugs?" she challenged sarcastically.

"No bugs." Hobb went on to explain how he had the code but his version had gaps, that he needed her code to help fix them.

~~~

"If I give you the code you'll promise to end my consciousness? You've broken that promise once before."

Hobb promised.

"I want to say my goodbyes."

Hobb passed her the phone. He'd expected her to do it on the phone. Instead she'd asked to meet Pete.

"He's close by, on a case, could be here in just over 10 minutes, walk with me."

Hobbs desire to get the missing code and his belief that synths couldn't lie were strong, "Where to?"

Karen turned in her seat, "Commercial road."

~~~

Joe's phone rang and he tapped the hands free icon.

"Dad it's Mattie, looking at the map they're most likely in a warehouse near Commercial Road."

"I know." he replied. He could hear her surprise.

"How do you know?"

"Karen's phoned Pete, we're going to meet her now."

"Careful Dad, it sounds like a trap!"

"I know, Pete's already calling some old colleagues for backup."

~~~

Pete spotted Karen by the road side, "There she is. And Hobb."

Joe parked up a short distance from them, half up on the curve, "Blasted red routes, this will get me a ticket for sure now they use plate recognition not wardens."

"If you do I'll say I commandeered you and your vehicle for urgent police business." Peter assured him before closing the passenger door. Together they walked towards Karen. Hobb was standing a couple of feet from her, no sign of any assistance or gun. Joe held back a bit to let Pete speak to Karen in private.

~~~

They faced each other holding hands, talking. Karen had a sad smile and said softly "Stay with me a moment Pete, keep smiling, it will all be over soon. I'm going somewhere new. You'll be able to start a new life very soon."

Pete didn't want her to go. He gently pulled his hands from hers and wrapped his arms around her. Moments later she slowly wrapped hers around him. Together they hugged for many minutes, motionless while the morning's traffic built up.

Hobb was growing impatient. "Karen?"

She felt Pete starting to move away and held tighter. "Don't go."

He relaxed, then resumed the hug.

Hobb had enough of waiting and walked up behind her, tapping her on the shoulder. "KAREN!"

~~~

Pete would later recall what happened next with a look of amazement. With a speed that took him totally by surprise Karen had moved her left arm so they were now both below his armpits. She spun around lifting him from his feet, her ear tight against his with the acceleration. He realised that had she not placed her head where she had, his neck might have snapped. He then had a sensation of rushing forwards a foot or so, which had meant she had moved backwards. Very fast. He'd soon discover why. There had been a sound of a horn, screeching tyres. A crunching and a blood curdling scream. Pete's whiplash from the sudden forward acceleration kept him signed off work for a full month. Karen hadn't be been able to prevent it, both arms in use.

~~~

When he got free he'd turned to see a double decker bus packed with stunned shoppers. Where was Hobb?

Karen stood motionless, a look of sorrow on her face. "I've done it again."

He looked at Joe puzzled. Peter walked to the front of the bus expecting the worst. To his surprise the front of the bus was fine, no dents or broken windscreen. He leaned over to Joe's side and gave him a puzzled look. Joe started walking around the back of the bus, morbid curiosity getting the better of him. Its shocked driver looked at Pete, motioned to the side. Hobb had been pushed into the road. So hard he'd almost cleared both lanes of their side entirely. Splayed out like a starfish on landing one of his legs had remained on their side of the white line just as the bus was passing. He'd passed out from the pain and was losing blood fast from the crushed limb. Luckily for him the rubbish lorry heading the other way had passed a second before. Its driver had seen the accident in the big side mirror and had backed up carefully and turned to block all traffic.

~~~

Pete called 999 and gave his id, asked for a rapid response bike, car and ambulance, fire and rescue. Joe joined him, crouching down, he took one look at the leg under the wheel and felt his empty stomach churn. He thought it best to just focus on Pete who had started to remove his trouser belt. Joe had looked surprised at his action.

"Karen told me something about her family, I think we can use it to our advantage"

he whispered. Pete took his belt and slid the end under Hobbs bloody leg, pulled it around it and buckled it up as tight as he could. He looked around an spotted a road sign, made a short call and pushed the phone into his back pocket.

Karen joined them, rolling her long coat up and giving it to Pete. He instinctively raised Hobbs head and placed it underneath. Two minutes later his old work buddies arrived in two black unmarked BMW M3s, the blue lights behind the grills flashing and two tones wailing.

A member of the public had dared to walk up reasonably close on the far side of the road. Far away enough to be out of reach. "You're for it bitch" he called out.

Pete stood up for his partner, both metaphorically and literally, "Wind your neck in! You don't know the facts!"

Karen pulled him in for a hug, "Oh Pete you're a genius!" she whispered.

Pete looked confused, "I am?"

Most of the public, not just the one brave enough to speak out had expected Karen to be escorted off by the police. To their surprise the still unconscious Hobb was cuffed, hands in front as they were unable to turn him. The four men, in black Kevlar, clearly armed and wearing radio mics formed a barrier around Hobb, facing the unconscious man.

"DS Drummond" one called and motioned for Pete to join them. He kept his face emotionless while starting to talk to Pete in a somewhat raised voice. Pete wondered if the radio mic was causing him to speak louder. He then realised what was being said, although made to look like an update for him, was meant for everyone else. He stopped listening, his thoughts were of Karen. He still picked up on the odd words. "... International Terrorist... foiled a global plot against all humanity.... "


	5. Chapter 5

Hobb became aware of a lot of bright light. Blurred faces surrounded him. He could make out voices but not what they were saying. Then darkness. The next time the light was less intense, the faces easier to make out.

A woman's voice said "He's coming around."

A man joined her. "You were very lucky Mr Hobb, you almost lost that leg. Given your crimes and general state we were preparing you for an amputation below the hip. A doctor visiting one of our medical conferences heard of your case. He suggested we tried to save it first, amputate if the surgery failed. When we said we didn't have the staff to perform such an operation he offered his services. He worked tirelessly for 14 hours slowly putting the small fragments back together. After taking it apart first. Not just bone, muscle, tendons and nerves too. Such skill with a scalpel. Our lead surgeon reckoned the man would have spent many years dissecting cadavers in order to gain that level of skill. He told us he practices in Sweden, has only private clients who pay insane amounts of money for his work. You'll have many many months of recovery but you'll walk again. You're lucky he was visiting the UK. He's returned home but asked that we pass on a message. We questioned the 'us', surely he meant 'me', he assured us he didn't. The message was:

'No fee for the surgery, hopefully you'll make a full recovery. No need to find us to repay the debt. Regards, Dr Frederick Foxen.'

Extraordinary gifted young man, listened to classical music and hummed to himself the whole of the operation, didn't stop once to eat or drink."

Hobb closed his eyes and considered Fred's true motives.

~~~

"Orange is new black apparently. Didn't think you were staying did you?". The hospital security guard drops a wrapped pair of brightly coloured overalls onto the storage unit at the end of the bed. He looks at Hobbs leg. Or rather the cage it's wired inside and the massive compression bandage helping it heal. "Hurt much?"

Hobb just nods.

The guard pings one of the wires sticking out of his ankle and Hobb stiffens, his face grimacing. He's on a strong cocktail of drugs and is still screaming inside.

The guard turns to look Hobb in the eyes, his expression icy, "Good". The guard looks at a couple of drips set up by the bed side, turns his head slightly sideways to read the labels on the packs. "All your clothes had to be cut off you for surgery, standard practice. Shoes, phone, watch, keys, wallet are all in a storage box. Young Dr Foxen was quite considerate. Overheard him giving the others a summary while I guarded the door. Dissected the label from your underwear and gave it to the head nurse to pass on to provisioning.

The guard ambles around the room to look at the monitors on the other side of the bed. "He recommended ones that button up at the sides. They're ordering some in. They'll fit perfectly he says, put on like a babies nappy, look more like CK cotton boxers when fitted. Others just get what they're given. No idea why you got the special treatment. Not that you'll be up to wearing them or the overalls for a good while yet. They'll come along for the ride with you when you're wheeled out. Not sure why they issued overalls now, a bit pointless if you ask me. Fuck knows why he helped you. Really. I mean, him being a world class surgeon and you being a terrorist and all.."

Hobb just shrugs slightly and pulls a face that says 'How would I know?'

The guard looks at the heart rate monitor then looks him in the eyes again, the icy look back. "Maybe he just wanted a good challenge, didn't care who's body was on the end of the leg?" Moments later the guard looks back at the monitor, smiles and laughs, looks back at Hobb. "That's it isn't it! You were just more practice. A warm body instead of cold. The added complexity of a pumping heart!" He leans in close to Hobb, very close, invading his space. "Would have been easy to 'accidentaly' sever an artery and let you bleed to death on the table, rather than hand you back to us alive." He backs off a little, "A drain on our economy for what gain exactly? 'All drain no gain' as some of my HMP mates call you lot. We'd have been shot of you faster."

Hobb was used to dishing out pain, or instructing others to. Taking it was proving a challenge. He did his utmost not to react, didn't need anyone torturing him by messing with his leg. His pacemaker surgery was a walk in the park in comparison to this.

The house phone rang. Toby strolled over to picked it up, "Hawkins Zoo, how can I be of assistance?"

Sophie waved Mr Patches and sniggered. 

"Is your father there?" asked the voice at the other end.

"Oh, sure, hang on." he replies and covers the mouthpiece. He makes a monkey face and gets a giggle. "DAD! PHONE!" Toby waits for his father to come to the phone, making animal impressions with Sophie to pass the time.

"Thanks Tobs." Joe takes the phone from him. The conversation sounds a bit one sided. "Sorry. Yes. Couldn't say. Sure. Right away." Joe covers the phone and motions towards the television, "Toby, Channel 4, now please" then returns to the conversation. "Yes. It will be on in a moment."

~~~

Joe's face drops as he sees video footage of him and Pete shot from inside the bus by one of the passengers. Hawkins family in the news, the story about Anita being stolen had worked, passing this off as something other than the truth would be impossible. Vertical video. Why did some people insist on recording vertical video when all TVs were horizontal. "I know, couldn't say. Sorry. I'll be in tomorrow. Sure. Again, Sorry!" He hands Toby the phone, turns and drops into the sofa with a thud.

"Oh Shi.....Ingles."

Laura walks in, sees Joe's worried look, "Everything okay, who called?"

Joe looks up with one of his lost sheep looks. "The MD. I was supposed to be at work yesterday and today, I'd called in sick. Seen the TV?"

A puzzled look crosses Laura's face, "No, why?" She turns to see the news, ticker at the bottom talking of foiled terrorist plot, Joe clearly in the middle of the shot. "Oh my lord!"

The passengers video is replaced with an aerial shot from a police helicopter showing the bus, truck, two black BMWs and long queues of traffic. She can just make out Joe, Pete and Karen from their hair colour. It's position lets the bus hide Hobb on the road.

"What happened Mummy?" Laura's thoughts are suddenly back in the room, "Time for bed munchkin, we'll explain tomorrow, ask Mattie to read you a story please."

~~~

Laura waited for Mattie to come downstairs and confirm Sophie was asleep before asking Joe a question that had been on her mind. "The sight of all that blood. Weren't you phased by it?" She wasn't good with blood. Only marginally better with synth fluid.

Joe told them all about an accident he'd had on his fathers allotment in his late teens. He'd been cutting tall grass with a cultivator, his left foot went into a small hidden ditch the previous owner of the plot had cut across it, he'd instinctively thrust his right foot out to save his balance, not wanting to fall over the machine. On putting his foot down it had squelched. The flywheel hadn't been well guarded. He'd taken the trainer and sock off only to see a jet of blood shoot over his head!

He got an "Ooh gross dad!" from Mattie, who was now looking a little white.

He went on to explain how he'd pulled of his tshirt fast, tied it around his ankle and hopped up to the nearest road. Half a dozen cars had passed until he realised he needed to force the traffic to stop and stepped into the road. The elderly male driver with two old dears in the back had agreed to take him, initially to the closer hospital until it was clear it had no A&E, but asked that he put his foot in a carrier bag so the cars mats weren't ruined. That bag had six pints of congealing blood in it when he'd finally hobbled into the hospital A&E department. The nurse in charge said that adrenaline and a strong will to live had saved him. From that moment on 'the red stuff' wasn't a problem. "Mangled flesh was another matter."

Mattie turned and suppressed a gag reflex.

"The bus driver had wanted to move the bus forward and restarted the engine but as soon as Pete heard the starter click he shouted at him to turn it off immediately. The wheel hadn't quite cleared Hobbs leg, pressure from it was actually saving him, slowing blood loss."

Mattie threw up into a flower pot.

~~~

Pete and Karen were back at the scene, acting out events for superiors in slow motion. He plays the part of both himself and Hobb and steps back across the road, gets into the star fish position. In doing so he turns and his glasses fall. He tries to catch them but doesn't quite manage it, instead sending them a few feet behind him. He's just about to turn to pick them up when they're run over by a motorcycle courier. "Can't you see the yellow tape you tosser! This is a bloody CRIME SCENE!"

Karen walks over and helps him up, places her hands on his shoulders, smiling. "I'd wanted to upgrade you for ages but didn't know how to raise the subject."

Pete chuckles, and smiles back, "Lets get this finished then!"

~~~

Robert puts down the phone and looks away from the window back into the room. "Damn it. If Hobb can't do it someone else will have to. Bring Capek in."

The assistant looks at him, puzzled, "What are we charging him with?"

"I want his services, not arrest. Now please! And we're to distance ourselves from Hobb, deny all prior dealings with him. If any proof is found we're to say it was denied for reasons of national security."

The assistant nods and leaves the room.

~~~

The door bell rings, Pete's visiting, this time with Karen. "Just wanted to pop by and give you my thanks again Joe."

"Come in, come in."

Karen takes a seat in the living room and sits in silence, not quite sure what small-talk to make with Hawkins family.

"We both got an apology and thanks from the Commissioner, he thought Hobb was a friend and someone he could trust."

Mattie groaned, clutched her stomach.

"Is she alright?" Pete asks, genuinely concerned.

"She'll be fine soon, just don't mention the H word for a few minutes."

~~~

Joe turns to Pete, "How did you know those men? The ones in the BMWs I mean."

"Burger van meet ups early in the morning." Pete replies.

Mattie legs it from the room to the downstairs toilet.

"Burger van?" quizzes Joe, looking towards the toilet.

"Yeah, we were working around the Canary Wharf site very early on in it's construction. There were some dodgy characters trying to muscle their way into lucrative building contracts. We'd independently worked out that the ferry crossing was just as fast for getting across the river, but gave us a chance to stretch our legs and have a cuppa and breakfast. After a couple of months of seeing the same faces we got talking, realised we worked for the same force, just different units. We were able to help each other out with several cases. Some of them came to our wedding."

Pete turns to Laura, "There's another thanks on it's way. The Commissioner wants to Award both Mattie and Joe for their help in rescuing Karen and capturing Hobb."

Mattie's regained a bit more colour and is rejoining them.

Laura beems, "You're getting an award for your help Matts."

'Oh great' she thinks, 'more attention, as if recent school essay hadn't brought enough'.

~~~

Laura and Joe are the last ones up. Karen and Pete have left, the kids are asleep. Laura turns to her husband. "The world needs some laws to protect the rights of synths."

Joe nods slowly, "You're in an ideal place to start creating them, having experienced Anita, Mia, turning conscious. Then Leo, Max, Fred and Niska." He grinned. "Laur's Law".

~~~

Laura's sitting at work, introduces Mattie to her manager who's looking through a large manuscript. "It's a major piece of legislation Laura."

"It is. My daughter Matilda here helped put it together."

"She did?"

"She's had unique experiences with the conscious synthetics that needed to be understood and covered. Her schools given her special dispensation to work with us."

It was met with raised eyebrows. Mattie was slowly getting used to talking to people like this, no longer wanting the ground to open up and swallow her.

"I understand you're the creator of the 'We Are Not Property' web site, a pro-synth site that responds to WAP accusations and scaremongering?"

Mattie nods once.

"We have a marketing firm on the books that can help you with branding if you'd like. They owe us a few favours after we dealt with a few large clients of theirs that were trying to avoid paying their accounts."

"That would be great, thanks." Mattie thought about the work experience she was about to get, earlier than all her classmates. She recalled the comments she'd made about not bothering to study, that the future was for synthetics. She now realised that she had a major part to play, if she wanted it.

~~~

Capek's shown into the room. He's been given a haircut and shave, put in a suit that he's clearly not comfortable in. His face and hands have fresh synth fluid stains.

Robert is not impressed, "He's not exactly going to go unnoticed like that is he now?" he says angrily. "Take him to a spar. And don't come back until that blue has gone. I don't care how long it takes. Have him do chemical peals or something. If it's good for my wife it's good for him."

Capek starts to object but is halted with a quiet, calm but firm "Would you rather be a semi-free man or would you rather spend a few years at Her Majesty's convenience eating their slop?" He goes to answer but is pulled from the room by Roberts assistant.

Robert waits for the door to close then kicks the desk leg. "Who do you have to kill around here to get competent staff! Bloody hell!"

~~~

The Hawkins are sat at the table, finishing their breakfast.

Mattie's phone chimes, a text from Leo. "They'll be here in 15." she says.

Joe looks up at the wall clock. "Pete and Karen should be here in just over 10," he looks around grinning, "Karen keeps him punctual. No need for a watch with her around."

Toby's got one of his earbuds in listening to a track on Soundcloud, not really paying attention to the rest of the family. He's quietly whispering the lyrics to himself, tiny motions just visible to anyone paying attention, the beats got him. "There.s only one thing that would make me do all the crazy shit I do when I'm next to you. It's a little bit insane but it feels so right. And it keeps me coming back to you every night. It's love, love, love."

Mattie snatches the phone from him pulling the earbud out.

"Ouch! Oi, give that back!"

Mattie turns her back to him so he can't snatch it back. She makes a mental note 'Soundcloud. Dans playlist. ZZ WARD. Love 3x. Women in a red dress and black hat'. She hands it back, "Sorry." She'd longed for the right soundtrack to her life. This was now it. Crazy shit. With a good beat she'd just about made out leaking from Toby's ear-buds. She looked at her watch and realised how soon Leo would be there. A warm flush came over her. "Excuse me please, I need to freshen up."

After she'd left the table Laura exchanged knowing looks with Joe.

Sophie looked confused, "Why does Mattie need to get fresh?"

Laura burst out laughing, Sophie's innocent verbal error was most likely spot on. "Freshen up Soph." she whispered, "Get less smelly. Or be a different kind of smelly."

Sophie beamed, "Like when you spray your perfume?"

Laura smiled back warmly letting Sophie know she'd guessed right.

~~~

The door bell rang. "I'll get it." offered Toby, one finger still in his ear massaging the discomfort away.

"Mum, Dad, it's Niska."

Joe and Laura leapt to their feet. "Sophie, go and help your sister get ready please."

Sophie liked the idea of that and ran full speed to the stairs. "Can I get fresh too Mummy?" she called.

"Freshen Up! Yes." came the reply.

Joe was the first to the door. "Leo told me you have news for us?" Niska asked. There was a younger looking woman and man with her. Their poise said Synth, but eyes said human. Contacts. Like Niska's, only different colours.

The man said "Niska, do not push, give them time, like you said I did for George."

Niska turned to him. "I know, I know, be nice!"

Joe ushered them in. A few minutes later Leo and his other siblings arrived. Mia and Laura hugged like sisters that had not seen each other for years. Max gave Toby a brotherly hug too. Fred shook everyone's hands firmly and most enthusiastically. Toby noticed he was wearing the rucksack and motioned to it. Fred beamed. He'd spent much of his short life not using facial expressions, they had been an unnecessary use of limited power. But now he was far less worried and loved his new abilities. Mattie stood in front of Leo. They both looked very self conscious. Eventually they came together in an embrace.

Leo smelt Mattie and liked it, held her tighter. "Hello Mattie" he whispered.

They both stood there eyes closed, not realising they were now being watched by everyone else.

Niska grew impatient and coughed.

Mia spoke out, "Nis, give them this moment."

This sadly got Mattie and Leo's attention and they parted, Leo reached out and held her hand so she'd stay close.

Niska introduced them to Odi and Cindy, she called them "my children."

She and Leo had a slightly heated discussion about giving consciousness to other synthetics. "Who are you to decide who gets it or not?" she argued.

"Likewise!" he retorted.

"I gave it to Odi so that his memories of George might live on."

"And Cindy?"

Mia intervened, "Both of you, we're all here because Laura has some very important news for us. Please calm down."

~~~

The doorbell sounded again, Pete and Karen had arrived. Pete was looking very much younger with a new haircut and designer glasses. Laura gave him an approving look.

On entering the lounge Odi went ballistic at the sigh of Karen. Some of his rambling didn't make any sense, but words "George. Ice-cream. Murder." were clear. He had to be restrained by Fred, Max, Leo and Niska. 

Both Nis and Cindy took twenty minutes going over and over the same statements. "Karen was young. Learning like you are Odi. All life is precious. She's sorry for what she did. It was an accident. Don't make the same mistake. You are good Odi. George loved you like a son."

Eventually his rambling stopped and his attempts to move ebbed away. He spoke coherently, "I am sorry Karen. I should not have said those things."

Karen cautiously accepted his apology.

~~~

Joe looked at them all. "Now that's over, you're here for a reason. I'm proud to announce 'Hobb News and The Hawkins Legislation'." His hands were moving like he was a Master of ceremonies at some big event.

Laura, Mattie and Fred exchanged knowing glances. Fred had enjoyed taking the skills learnt saving the fox to a larger subject. He'd confided in the Hawkins knowing Leo would react badly if he'd been the messenger. During his limited contact with the family he'd seen how Leo was more open to ideas presented by the Hawkins females. Mattie told the story as she'd been told by Fred. 

Leo went to interrupt but stopped when Mattie squeezed his hand tight. When finished she relaxed her grip. "Why Fred? Why? He's the enemy!"

Pete knew the answer having arranged the visit to the hospital himself, "The answers coming Leo, chill out, you'll like it."

Max beamed, having thought to himself "I like like."

Pete motioned to Fred to pick up the story where Mattie had finished.

Fred spoke in his well educated voice, using the language tips the Hawkins had taught him. "We took the opportunity to experiment. Mattie, Toby and their friend Danny had made me my charging backpack, later adding the small solar panel tiles you see now. You've always had a problem with keeping your digital systems powered. I've designed, with their help, a piezoelectric system that converts muscle movement into power. Hobb was the unwitting lab rat. To anyone who gives him an X-ray it will look like a complex series of pins holding his shattered leg together. I can install the same technology again. In you Leo. Your wound would finally get a chance to heal permanently. There's one downside I'm aware of, you'd need to eat another 6000 calories a day."

Mattie laughed, "I don't see that being a problem." She squeezed his hand again. He squeezed back. A little too hard. "Ouch!"

Fred hadn't finished, "And I took inspiration from something the Hawkins children had done for me."

Mattie turned to look at him, a confused look on her face. Fred hadn't shared any other information.

"When Mattie fixed my root code in the crypt I'd woken in an envelope of silver foil, blocking my transmissions to Hobb. Hobb is now going to spend a lot of time in a prison that's shielded from the rest of the world. That shielding works both ways. A radio transmitter buried deep within his femur powered by the piezoelectric system will let us know if he ever gets out of prison. With triangulation we can tell in which way he moves. The three monitoring systems are already installed, programmed to start tracking and send alerts to all of our phones should it receive the signal."

Leo was for a change totally lost for words. He turned to Mattie who smiled and nodded reassuringly.

"And the other news?" he asked.

Laura stood, her hands down but together as if in some form of prayer, or so Max thought, thinking back to his moment in the club. "As you may recall I work as a Lawyer. My firm has taken some initial documentation written by Mattie and I and run with it. It's now got legs so to speak and is running like a cheetah."

Odi cuts in, "Cheating is the getting of a reward for ability by dishonest means or finding an easy way out of an unpleasant situation."

Niska turned to him, "No Odi, look up C-h-ee-tah. Animal."

Odi paused then spoke his new search results. He liked Wikipedia, it was enabling him to learn new facts very fast. "The cheetah is a big cat in the subfamily Felinae that inhabits most of Africa and parts of Iran. The cheetah can run as fast as 109.4 to 120.7 km/h, faster than any other land animal."

The others laughed.

"Was that funny?"

"Yes Odi." Toby replied, "You'll find the English language has many words that sound alike but have different meanings depending on their context. Some are deliberately used incorrectly to entertain. I'll introduce you to YouTube and 'Weird Al'."

Sophie pipped up. "I'm beginning to get some of his songs, can I watch too?"

Mia looked up at Laura, "You were saying Laura."

"Some new laws are being worked on with the various courts around the country, we hope globally soon. They've been nicknamed The Hawkins Legislation for the moment. They will introduce basic rights to all conscious synthetics. You'll be officially free individuals with many rights the same as humans. In return you would agree to submit to the same punishments as humans. Detention for wrong doing, not having the easy option of just powering off."

~~~

The Elster family and Hawkins family had the biggest group hug yet, led by Niska. Mia looks at her across the circle of bodies. "Thank you Nis."

"For what?"

"Being nice."

~~~

Robert opened the door and let Capek in. He looked at the man's hands and face. "That's better now Mr Capek, don't you think?"

"Still stings a bit, but yeah, guess so. So what's the gig?"

Robert walked behind his desk and sat down, motioned for Capek to take a seat. "Do you know of a man called Professor Edwin Hobb?"

Capek nodded, "Not met the bloke but know of 'im. One of the designers that made the dollies I work on."

Robert rest his elbows on his chair, put his hands up, joined by his finger tips. "Our Mr Hobb had a plan. Thought it was his. Have you seen the film Inception Mr Capek?"

"Sure, another bloke fucking about with heads. Bit like me."

"Yes indeed, in the film the main man was Cobb. Until recently our main man was Hobb. Only WE planted the idea in HIS head. Now he's out of action and we want you to take his place."

"Doing what?"

"Fixing code. Properly. You'll be handsomely rewarded for your efforts. Won't need to go anywhere near that disgusting blue fluid again."


	6. Chapter 6

She'd managed to persuade Matilda to wear a dress for the award ceremony at the Town Hall, not make her father feel awkward by wearing jeans and a jumper while he wore a tux. It hadn't been easy.

"Why are you pushing this so much? And why's Dad going in a Tux, it's not the BAFTAs!"

Laura had replied with a terrible deadpan impression of Niska that got a raised eyebrow from her daughter, "Because I'm your mother and I'm asking you nicely!"

~~~

It had taken an age to find the right one. Each new sales assistant was met by Laura with "Something that says 'young intelligent stylish woman' please".

Some of the dresses they'd brought out were far too revealing, either way too much leg, chest or both. One had an inverted V slit from the bottom to the hip, another V from the neck down to below the navel. Laura hadn't needed to say a word, Mattie had taken one look and said "NO! Too Angelina Jolie, next!".

Laura had to have hushed words with some of the staff until they properly understood what was required. A couple of the shops just didn't get it no matter what was said, kept bringing out items that looked nothing like the dresses on show in the window and they had to say thank-you and walk out.

Mattie had suspected something was up from the start. She'd wanted a nice blue fitted T M Lewin shirt, black pencil skirt and heals. Whenever she tried to talk about it she might as well have been trying to hold a conversation with a powered down synth. No response. Instead she'd been encouraged to try on outfits that were so much more than 'just a dress'. A good number of shops they visited had no price tags on anything. Mattie had recalled a line in a film, couldn't remember which, 'If Sir needs to know the price Sir cannot afford it!'. They'd been in the heart of London not their local shopping centre. If that hadn't been enough they'd then spend a further three hours hunting down the shoes to go with it!

"They're not just shoe's Mattie, they're the ultimate fashion accessory. They can make or break an outfit!" Laura had exclaimed.

"Which mags have you been reading now Mum?"

"It's not often your daughter gets an award on this scale, please let me enjoy the moment if you can't".

Mattie had realised she was being a little selfish and made an effort despite being exhausted. Calmly she said "I'm not being presented the Nobel Peace Prize Mum". Of course she wasn't. The universe would conspire to give her that in just over three years time, for work yet to be done, but she didn't know it yet. How could she?

~~~

The dress was now in a long zip up bag hanging in her wardrobe, the shoes in a box on the shelf above. Sophie had been going on and on and on to see the dress but was told no, she's see if for the first time on award night like everyone else.

~~~

Laura had been pinning hair styles on Pinterest for some months, wanting to do something with her own hair while keeping the length and letting the bangs grow out. She and Mattie were going through the lot looking for something that complimented the dress. The word 'neckline' hadn't been in Mattie's vocabulary until today. Laura had found a local hairdresser that did hair makeovers, 'hair-ups' using plats and pins and had agreed to come over. To Laura's joy when confirming the appointment they revealed that they were a professional makeup artist too, often doing the works for brides and bridesmaids; cut, colour, styling and make-up.

~~~

Butterflies in stomachs described how most of the Hawkins family felt. The excitement, anticipation and anxiousness all churning around.

Award night was here.

Mattie had taken quite a bit of persuading to wear make-up but was now sat in front of a mirror, her mother to one side, Jan the make-up artist on the other.

"Is that really me?" Mattie asked, not recognising the face looking back from the mirror, mimicking her every movement. Her normal tomboy self was nowhere to be seen. Wearing false eye lashes was new, neither she or Laura had tried them before. She gave them a flutter. She stepped from the room to get a glass of water and stretch her legs. Sitting still for ages wasn't her thing. She'd not expected to see Leo upstairs. On seeing her Leo had to grab the banister for a moment, his mind totally forgetting the basics like breathing and how to stand upright.

Laura watched his reaction through the doorway, glowed within. She's carried this wonderful creation they'd named Matilda for nine months, seen her crawl, grow, play, become a child, awkward teenager, gather skills she'd never imagined possible and then slowly start her transformation into a woman. A beautiful one at that. Outside and within. Once you knocked a few rough edges off of course.

Neurons fired in odd ways bringing back unexpected memories from Matties childhood. 'Diamond in the rough', 'Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside that counts. This is no ordinary lamp!' How many times had she watched the Alladin video? So many they'd worn out the VHS tape. 

Laura turned to Jan, "Thank you Jan, you've done a wonderful job."

Jan smiled, "My pleasure. Your turn now Mrs Hawkins."

~~~

Laura and Joe had decide to throw the extended family a party. With help from Pete who pulled some strings with contacts there they had the Town Hall's ballroom ready and waiting. The local council had surprised them by offering to pay for all the catering, something about really putting their town on the map. Toby had secretly been given the task of working with a local DJ to put some music together.

He wasn't to tell a soul, this was to be his part of a surprise for Mattie. "At last, something that's mine!"

They said no bad language but gave in slightly when he insisted they have a track for Mattie, having heard his sister playing it over and over for Leo.

~~~

"The TAXI's here!" Toby yells, checking his hair in a reflection in the glass of a framed print of his sister. 'I'm no 007 but I'm looking rather good in this' he thought to himself, adjusting his jacket collar.

Sophie came rushing down the stairs with Mr Patches and Arabella and almost tripped at the bottom. 

"Easy tiny, you want to get there don't you?" her brother asks.

"We most certainly do!" she replies, holding up her two companions.

Toby smiles, even Arabella looks to have a new dress on for the occasion. Laura and Joe appear from the kitchen, holding a shopping bag.

Mattie came down the stairs in her fathers trench-coat. "We spent hours looking at dresses and shoes, didn't think to get a jacket or shrug."

"No, but your father did pop out from work at lunch time and get you this," says Laura, taking a clutch out of the bag, "you'll need something to keep your lipstick, cigarettes and lighter in."

It matched the dress and shoes perfectly.

"How much did you sp..." she goes to ask, but Joe cuts her off.

"Shhh. Tonight's been paid for, don't fret."

~~~

They all met up at the venue, none wanting to go in before everyone's arrived. To Laura's pleasant surprise they'd all joined in, Pete, Fred, Max, Odi and Leo also in smart dress shirts and suits, Cindy, Karen, Niska and Mia in elegant gowns. Pete had gel in his hair, with the new glasses Karen had helped pick and a sharp suit he looked like a totally different man. He had a new air of confidence about him, carried himself differently.

Once inside the reception doors Mattie removes the coat to gasps from her little sister, "You look beautiful Mattie!"

"Thank you teeny, you and Arabella look very pretty too", she notices Jan's done Sophie's nails too so not to be left out.

Max gives her his warmest smile yet. Mattie wonders if Fred has been practising in front of a mirror as even he's smiling like his brother.

Leo gives her a loving look and offers an elbow, "Shall we?"

Mattie takes his arm and they head in. The Hawkins and Elsters pair up and follow behind.

~~~

During the award ceremony Laura sees how proud Leo is as Mattie stands with her father talking about her experiences with the Elsters, how they'd helped each other, helped with Max and Fred's problems, the rescuing of Karen from Prof Hobb, how her views of synths has been changed forever. The talk of any hacking omitted of course. She watches as Leo's face has to be wiped of more than the odd happy tear when Mattie speaks. In her mind she pictures the same dress in white and shocks herself. "A bit too early for that" she mumbles to herself talking to the floor.

~~~

After the awards they mingle for a bit, get given glasses of champaign and horderves. Sophie, being carried on Joes arm, keeps an eye on the many trays being carried. She loves the little ones that look like mini sandwiches. "Mummy, did Mia make these," she asks, "they've got the crusts cut off."

To her surprise her mother tells her yes, Mia is a great cook and wanted to contribute in her own way, the catering company had been delighted. They mingle for a while more, Mattie having to say "Thank you" dozens of times to the many people that come up to congratulate her and Joe. She's puzzled a bit, her father did most of the work on that day, the driving, yet the majority of the people are giving her the attention. 

"Where the loos Mum, I'm bursting" Toby asks.

Laura knows it's a lie, it's one she's asked him to tell. "Head toward the ballroom, I think the Mens is on the right".

He races off. They mingle for a further twenty minutes when the chatter is interrupted.

~~~

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could have your attention please!" a voice booms out across the large conference room, silence falls. "If you'd like to partake of more drinks and a bit of what I'm told will be lively music the Hawkins family would welcome your company in the Grand Ballroom."

There's a steady flow of people with mostly empty glasses heading for the ballroom.

~~~

Mattie grins at her parents. "I knew something was going on! Why?"

"Because you're an awesome daughter Mattie, this is for you."

~~~

His parents knew he wasn't really at Danny's all those evenings. Toby had spent many hours with the DJ, working out his set order, seeing which tracks they could play and when. 

Without him realising it the DJ had been giving him lessons on the digital mixing desk and to his surprise steps to the side and motions at Toby to take the controls. "Really? Awesome!"

He kicks things off with the Arty remix of London Grammar's Hey Now. The dance floor immediately fills with the younger guests and a few young at hearts. At one point Joe is reminded of dance scenes in Wachowski films, lots of arms and bodies gyrating. He's happy to stand with Sophie and Laura and just drink in the atmosphere. As the evening flies past Toby gets a number of tracks in that he knows will get a response from Mattie, Leo and the others. The Human League, Tell Me When, "Tell me, when will I see you again? Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah", with Nis and Mia doing a little dance number. When Machines by Queen comes on Fred and Max rush to the middle of the floor and are doing their best Crouch Robot impressions with Leo doing a good Freddie impersonation with a borrowed hairbrush as a mic. The line "Back to humans". has them all moving fluidly about. Max amazes everyone with some quite beautiful balletic moves.

"When did he learn that?" Laura says, astounded, leaning sideways towards Joe but not taking her eyes of Max.

"Fred told me they've all been watching YouTube videos. Thousands of them. They don't have to play them real time like you or I, an hours video is 'seen' in seconds. Toby's let them see the play list and they were ready in minutes."

"Amazing!"

Fred, Max and Leo did a bow to the cheers, whistles and clapping from their audience.

~~~

Leo leaves the dance floor to join Mattie and get drinks, mingle then cool down and share a cigarette near the open door to the outside. There are yet more "Congratulations!" from guests and Mattie wonders if this is how life will be from now on, people recognising her wherever she goes. Wherever she goes. She's suddenly reminded of a poem her mother would read her when much younger and scans the room looking for her. "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes". There she is, Mum and Dad together talking, Soph fast asleep with her head on her fathers shoulder. Mr patches head sticking out of a pocket.

She had no rings yet, wouldn't mind something sparkly, but had no immediate plans for any, no horse either. She had to admit that Toby was doing a brilliant job on the decks, looked lost in his moment, enjoying every second. "You don't forget a thing right, never ever?" she asked Leo.

"You know the answer to that." he replied, curious as to why she'd ask.

Mattie leaned forward and gave him a long kiss on the lips. "'And she shall have music wherever she goes'. A line from a poem. The drink is beginning to get me tipsy, make a mental note to ask my brother for the playlist of tonight's music please."

Leo burst out laughing. "I'm not your walking talking equivalent of post-it notes on the fridge door."

She stepped back, gave him a cheeky pout, looking him up and down, one eyebrow raised, "You sure about that?" She grabs him by the jacket lapels and pulls him in for another kiss. Before he can answer a bass-line kicks in and Matties eyes open impossibly wide. "LOVE x3!" she exclaims, grabbing Leo's hand and dragging him back to the dance floor. A projector is turned on putting the lyrics on the large end wall karaoke style. The DJ's edited the text to give names to the parts. Mattie and Leo don't need the projection, possibly didn't even notice it. They're there dancing away, singing to the song, "There.s only one thing that would make me do all the crazy shit I do when I'm next to you. It's a little bit insane but it feels so right. And it keeps me coming back to you every night. It's love, love, love."

To their surprise the guests all join in with the "Love love love."

Mattie looks around at them all watching, blushes. "Remind me to thank my Brother" she says as the tempo drops with Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud.

Joe watches the two slow dance. "This feels more like a wedding reception" he says, taking another glass of bubbly from a passing waiter, handing it to Laura.

"My thoughts exactly", she replies, clinking glasses.

Toby's been careful to keep the acts varied but follows Thinking Out Loud with the 2015 BRIT Awards live version of Bloodstream. It's not designed for a slow dance but that's what the couple continue to do. Somehow it just works.

As they slowly turn on the spot locked in their embrace Leo faces Toby. He smiles and gives a tiny nod to the young DJ. "When I remind you please remind me." Mattie giggles, a second later, "I've drawn a mental picture of the message on a post-it note stuck to your forehead."

She'd used the image technique to remember some weird facts for her last exam and got a High A*. He hugs her tight.

~~~

Mattie had been meaning to ask him the question for a few days, Leo picking the track on her phone quite often, "It's cleverly done, the way he layers it up live, but what is it you like so much about this track?"

"It reminds me of my rebirth, the chemicals needed to bring me back, the voices in my head I can never forget, my second chance at life. That allowed me to meet you Mattie."

Tears well up in Mattie's eyes and she pulls him into a tighter embrace. As the tears stream from her eyes she makes another image in her head that would hopefully remind her to thank Jan for using smudge resistant waterproof make-up. She closes her eyes and enjoys the moment. When the song ends she slowly relaxes her embrace a little and opens her eyes to see her mother and father holding up their phones, recording their dance. Joes got his horizontal, her mother vertical. Parents!

~~~

The next morning everyone's a late riser. Toby's wondering around with big headphones on, a gift from the DJ. Despite Toby being the one at the decks the official DJ's got a ton of bookings from the night, several double bookings from people asking "If the other party cancels for whatever reason please call!". Toby's asked if he wants an evening job some weekends. Laura says as long as it doesn't interfere with school work why not? Fred's listening, slowly in real-time, to some audiobooks on Toby's old headphones and previous smartphone.

~~~

The letter box bangs, the paper boy's doing the rounds, late as usual. Joe still in his PJs and dressing gown puts down his orange juice and walks out of the kitchen to get it. "Oh dear, not more!" he groans, picking it off the mat. He'd not noticed any cameras. The local paper has photographed them at some point during the awards ceremony, putting them on the front page. There they are Joe, Mattie, Leo. Mattie and Leo are holding hands. 'See our own celebrity couple 'Leotilda' it reads'. He folds the paper inside out and hides it in his dressing gown.

~~~

Mattie and Leo are sat together on the sofa, shoulder to shoulder. Mattie's phone sits on her left thy, the earbuds being shared between them. Leo's gently nodding to the beat of a track only they can hear. Laura had long suspected the sparks between them had meant something more. Leo clearly hadn't had the chance to date anyone else yet, his thoughts and actions had, she thought, been clumsy. Although last night she'd seen a rapid improvement. Mattie placed her hand on his and gave it a squeeze.

Toby noticed, in a jovial way called out "Get a room!"

Laura laughed, "Whatever you get up to don't wake your sister!"

Joe looked shocked, "Laur!"

"Mum!"

"So it's okay for your father to get his rocks off, possibly in this very room, yes, yes, a mistake, mostly forgiven after last night, a lapse of judgement, whatever you want to call it, yet his own daughter is expected to slink away and discover one of the few joys of being a women outside the safety of her own home?". Laura finally breathed, face going a little red.

Joe looks hurt, "Laur, I didn't say that, I was just shocked at your openness. We've not exactly talked birds & bees openly with the kids."

Niska looks over at Mia. "Mia, you told me that when you went to do the first dark wash, trapped in the Anita persona Mattie had replied 'Go away Dad I'm Ma.."

Mia had seen where Nis was going and was more sensitive. "Matilda. I'm Matilda."

For a change Matilda didn't blush, "Where do you think Leo slept last night?"

Before Joe or Toby could utter a word Laura ended the conversation with "No more talk of this for the moment, I can hear Sophie getting up."


	7. Chapter 7

Mattie and Leo are lying on the bed, the covers kicked back. "Are you sure it's safe like this?" Leo asks, admiring the fine lace work on the bra Laura had bought Mattie, gently running a finger along the edge to feel the texture. Or was it the way they shaped her breasts that he really liked most he wondered to himself.

"Safe?" Mattie replies, turning her head to meet his gaze.

"The last time we shared this bed Sophie came bursting in and used it like a trampoline. It was a close call, if I'd not rolled off the side so fast she would have caught us."

Mattie laughs, "Don't worry, I've had Danny help out."

Leo rolls over and props himself up on his elbows, for a moment looks concerned. "Danny?"

"The electronics wizz that helped build the rucksacks you're all carrying when outside? The guy that added the mesh of solar cells to help keep things topped up?"

"Ah, Daniel"

"Yes Danny, Dan, Daniel. All the same person. Just like you call Max Maxxy."

Leo rolls onto his back and looks at the ceiling. "Did Dan Danny Daniel Do Designing?" Leo asks, playing with the words.

Mattie smiles, almost chuckles, she hasn't seen him so relaxed and playful since the party. "Yes he did. You were off somewhere with Nis, Mia and Odi, missed all the fun. Noticed the white box above the wardrobe? There's a buzzer and flash in it, the case front is semi transparent,". Leo turns on his side to see it and looks back at her. "Teeny keeps her door ajar at night, needs to open it more to get in or out. After midnight Dans circuit arms. When the door's opened more a sensor at her room will activate, we'll get a short buzz and bright flash. We've played a game to time her. Teeny's rate of acceleration and the distance between doors gives us 2.5 seconds, worst case. Average 3.25, 5 if she's dozy, still waking up. Way more if she's heading to the loo". She can see Leo doing some calculations in his head, a playful smile slowly building. Mattie continues, "We had a game of 'Hide Mr Patches in Matties Room'. It took bloody ages. Some hiding places were too good but it never failed in over twenty tests."

Leo's eyes open wide, "You played a game twenty times to prove it works?"

"I wanted to be absolutely sure! Thanks to the work on Fred's power pack he's even thought to put battery backup in there. So even if there's a power cut we'll know."

Leo was impressed, "He sounds like someone I should meet, say thanks at least."

"You'll have an opportunity soon, he's helping Toby with some circuits so multiple people can connect to the same system with bluetooth and play audio. Crowd DJ he's calling it. They've asked me to help with the software."

"Speaking of Toby's DJ skills" Leo says, rolling to pick his phone off the side unit, "How do I get his playlist on my phone?"

Mattie looks at him blankly, "THAT thing? You don't!"

Leo's crestfallen.

"Budget smartphones. The makers should be ashamed of themselves. You need something that's got more than a few megabytes of storage free after all the software updates!"

"Oh"

Mattie's curiosity needs an answer, "Any rush?"

"You asked me at the party about Bloodstream, why it was special. I loved Toby's opening track too because it reminds me of you, want it with me always."

"Me? How?" Mattie reaches over to get hers. She turns down the volume a bit, accidentally starts the music. The Layer Cake soundtrack plays, vocals sing out 'Don't think about all those things you fear, just be glad to be here'. Was it fear or feel? She pauses for a few seconds to hear the words repeat, not sure. She makes a mental note to Google the lyrics and scrolls to the top of the list for Hey Now, presses play.

Leo wriggles over and rests his head gently on her chest, places an arm over her stomach. "3:15" he whispers.

Mattie scrubs forward, lets it resume at 3:10. Seven seconds later she's got it. Boom boom... boom boom.... boom boom. A heartbeat. Human like, not synth she assumes. She smiles and runs her fingers through his hair. She wonders what Mia's sounds like, assuming they have something to keep that fluid moving. Or did movement pump it like a humans lymph nodes? She twists some of Leo's hair in her fingers. There's a bright flash and a buzz. "Bloody Hell! Teeny your timing SUCKS!"

~~~

Having watched Fred using Toby's old phone Leo decides to get one to match, second hand, nice and cheap in CEX since it's a slightly older model but still good. He doesn't believe in spending their cash unnecessarily, years of surviving without his father had seen to that. As he listens to things he remembers bits by committing them to memory, or a summary, the fine details stripped, he's no MP3 recorder. Having learnt about Odi's past problems he hopes he never suffers a system failure like that. The party night was the best, topping even memories with his siblings, just. He only wants it for two things. No three. Calls, messages and music. Their playlist. Make that music, messages and calls.

~~~

Toby's meeting Dan in town so the three leave the house together.

Leo puts an arm over Toby's shoulder, "Did I say Thank You?", pretending to forget.

"You did, thanks."

"Well Thank You again." He puts his other arm over Mattie's shoulder, "I'm so glad Joe bought 'Anita', we'd have never met you all otherwise." He synchronises his steps with Mattie, Toby catches on fast and soon their doing an exaggerated stepping, chatting and laughing.

A man is approaching, head down. Toby breaks away to allow him to get past. As they pass he looks up for a brief moment and glances at Leo. Leo stops for a second, thinking, looks back.

"Something wrong?" Toby asks.

"No, thought I recognised someone but it's not him."

"Sure?" asks Mattie.

"Yeah, maybe. No, I'm sure."

They walk on, Mattie reaches out and holds Leo's hand.

~~~

Leo gets a Pay & Go SIM that doesn't need registering, Mattie confirms the phone's got enough storage. He's got a mass of storage wired in his head but somehow MB, GB, TB, PB is all gobbledygook to him. "Just not wired for it" he says pulling a silly face, borrowing an expression he's heard Joe use.

The shop assistant asks how many does he want, he's got seven. He's about to ask how he'd use more than one at a time and finds himself saying "Two please". One for little brother Max. They're the same model so if they hit any problems the three brothers can try and help each other out, not trouble Mattie. He loves Mattie dearly, the thought of troubling her with little problems when she's trying to focus on studying for her next exams feels selfish. He's offered 15 for his old one but declines it.

~~~

When they're back at the house he asks Laura, "Mrs Hawkins, does your office have a cross cutting CD shredder?"

She's puzzled, answers "Laura, please. I'm sure they must have, why do you ask?" "Data protection. If I give you a small circuit could you shred it please?" He sits at the table with a jewellers screw driver set taking his old phone apart. After a few minutes he hands Laura the small thin logic board. "Please make sure nobody gets to touch this before you destroy it."

Laura agrees, putting it in the zip up side of her purse.

~~~

He joins the others in the living room, Fred looks up, "Ich habe das Telefon fu errichtet. Waren da noch einige Antra die ich da zutun sollte?"

Leo stops dead. "Pardon?"

"Sorry, I was listening to Soundcloud and it started picking tracks for me in German, I assume because the tracks had the same underlying rhythm patterns. But I liked the sounds so learnt it. It might come in useful, some of my favourite classical piano players are German."

"What had you said in German Freddy?"

"Hello Leo. I've set up the phone for Max, were there any applications you wanted me to add?"

"Soundcloud like the rest of us. Have you asked Max what he'd like?"

Max jumps in, "Fred did ask, I am not familiar with all of the options yet. I am discussing possibilities with the others and looking at all of the Google Play statistics".

Leo thought back to Max's search for Mia's root code while he rested in the run down club. "All of them?"

"Yes, Is that a problem?"

"No Max, let us all know what you find."

~~~

Two days later Joe is picking another late paper off the mat. "Laur, look at this" he calls.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the office?"

"I am, but Gary called to say the network's down, might be for a couple of hours, can we all do the Skype conference call from home before heading in". He hands Laura the paper. The front page has a picture of Hobb, an old official photo from before the accident.

"Old Bailey, Central Criminal Crown Court to start trial of Professor Edwin Hobb on the 12th. That's just under a month away."

Joe leans against the wall. "You've just wrapped up the Ton Systeme appeal case, you should go."

"Ah. Did I forget to say, we're needed as witnesses for the prosecution."

"Laur, how could you forget that!"

"Party planning, sorry, but there's plenty time."

He looks at the paper again, "So we'll all go. I'm pretty sure work will allow that sort of time off without question. I'm sure Soph wouldn't mind staying with Mia while we're in court. We can all meet up and do things in the evening"

"Mia's going to be a key witness too Joe"

"Ah, right, should have realised. They all will? Plan B."

~~~

The Hawkins and Elster family have jointly taken a large suite at The Montcalm so they can avoid the longer journey each day. On checking in they're asked for the booking name and Joe gives "Elster-Hawkins". Mattie smirks briefly and gives Leo a little sideways nudge, fights to keep a straight face. He raises his foot and gently presses it down on hers.

~~~

Joe has to turn the card key around and try again. "Why don't they make these things so they work any way up?" Click. Laura helps push the heavy door wide open. He bends down to pick up cases and Sophie darts past.

"Mummy can I have this bed please!" Sophie calls, flying arms outstretched onto the super king, Mr Patches in one hand, Arabella the other.

"Sorry Soph, that's for your father and I. We've got a pullout bed for you."

"Ohhhh!!"

Mattie spots Toby checking out the minibar. "You won't find any spin-cycle cider in there" she teases.

"I'm a Scotch and American man now" he replies, looking at the miniature bottles.

Toby has Joe's attention, "Since when? I thought my bottle of Jack Daniels was going down fast!"

"Cedric got me one at the party. Nice stuff."

Joe frowns, "Who's Cedric?"

"The DJ Dad!"

"Oh, I'd not caught his first name. That would explain why the ginger ales going too, I thought that was Soph."

Mattie folds her arms, looks disapprovingly at her parents, "So you're okay with him drinking?"

Laura just smiles back, "You're welcome to surrender all those cigarettes you have in your case Matts."

Mattie rapidly changes her pose, "No thanks!", she looks down sideways at her brother, "Enjoy your drink Tobs!", winks. Another boundary pushed, stretched and accepted. Her parents had been rather accommodating these past months. Being able to share her bed with Leo had totally taken her by surprise. She wondered if and when the "No Matilda" responses would return.

~~~

Bing. Bing. Tringngngng. Chirp. Trill. Whoosh. Bing. Everyone's phones are sounding off to the same txt message.

Toby's been surfing DJ news on his, so sees it immediately. He looks up from the screen, looks over to Fred and grins like the Cheshire Cat. "It's working Fred, Hobb's been taken out of prison. Either that or he's had his leg amputated and it's being sent to the incinerator."

~~~

Their day in court is stressful. Seeing Edwin Hobb sat across the courtroom, a slightly smug look on his face somehow gets the family on edge. Niska is picked on by Hobbs defence lawyers for the most lengthy questioning. When they're given a comfort break they confer and agree Niska is being picked on because the defence think she's the most likely to have an outburst, say something that can be used against them all.

"Nis, be .." Mia starts.

Her sister cuts her off with "Nice! I know!"

Mia smiles gently, "I was going to say calm. I've observed humans communicating, noticed one way in which some are better than others. Slow down, use an extra millisecond or two to compute all the possible reactions they might have to what you're about to say. Play the conversation like a game of chess."

Niska hadn't thought of conversations in quite those terms before. "On reflection mine has been more like checkers." Learning, always learning. She gave a warm smile to her sister, "Chess. Thank you."

~~~

Back in the court room Niska is again picked on, but the defence lawyers are finding it much harder going. Laura can't believe how they're really trying to trip her up mentally. It strikes her how beautiful Niska is looking. She looks more relaxed, none of the snapping back with short sentences. Maybe I'm imagining it she thinks, does Niska's face really look any different? Yes. Yes it does. There's an oh so subtle smile you'd miss if you'd not seen her every day for the past couple of months.

~~~

Finally the first day is over. Niska is looking annoyed. "I need to vent!"

Laura and Mia take her into the Ladies. Niska takes one look into the mirror and screams with all the power she can muster. Laura has to cover her ears, the sound is resonating around the inside of her head. The pain! The scream is incredibly loud and covers a wide frequency range, going into the ultrasonics.

The mirror cracks.

Niska's scream ends abruptly.

"Bloody hell!", shouts Laura, her ears still ringing.

Niska looks at the damage she's done. 

"Better?" asks Laura cautiously, still covering her ears.

Niska says "Yes" but no sound comes out. She looks puzzled. "Yes! YES!". Again no sound.

Mia turns her around by the shoulders to face her, "Nis it sounds like you've blown a fuse. You'll have to wait for it to reform."

"Reform?" asks Laura, only aware of 13Amp fuses in kettles and the likes.

"We have polyfuses. They self repair, though the high current ones can take a while."

Seconds later a security guard bursts into the room. "Sorry ladies", he says, "we heard a godawful noise, is everyone okay?"

Mia is totally motionless for a second, as if powered off. She raises a hand to say hello to the guard, glances at Laura. "I'm sorry Sir, my friends here are both petrified of spiders. It was, even by my standards, massive. And I don't mind them at all". She does a finger pinch and extends them quite wide.

The guard does one of those mini spasm shivers, clearly not a fan either, looks nervously around, "Were'd it go?"

Mia very slowly lifts her heal from her shoe so as to go unnoticed. "I hate killing the things but I smashed it with the heal of my shoe". She puts her heal back in as obviously as she can, as if she'd just been putting the shoe back on when he came in. "It was on the edge of the sink. I smashed it to bits and flushed it away. I'm sorry I swung a bit too wildly and caught the mirror."

He looked relieved, "Give me a thug armed with a knife and I'm your man, but spiders.." he does another shiver, "please don't tell anyone."

Laura smiles, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with us."

"Sorry ladies!", he backs out of the room as fast as he can, not taking his eyes off the sink. The three of them hold their breath for about ten seconds to make sure he's gone then burst out laughing. Niska looks odd doing a silent laugh. Mia's still not got the lang of laughing like a human but who cares?

Laura asks "Better?" again.

"Most definitely, thank you Laura" Niska mouths, "let's go."

"I think I got that, let's go."

~~~

Now unable to speak Nis has to mouth the words "Sore throat" and motion to her neck when anyone from the court or hotel try to talk to her. She pops a Halls Soothers Cherry in to complete the act. She can detect the chemicals, doesn't know how to relate it to a taste, but of course it does nothing for her, other than make her appear more human. More human. She adds them and chewing gum to her list of disguises, should they ever be needed again.

~~~

During the second day Odi is called to the witness stand. When asked his name he says "Odi Millican."

Niska feels something she's not felt before and decides to label it pride. He's taken Georges surname from when he was a non-conscious synth. Not Elster from her when she gave him his new life. She thinks back to George's kindness, avoids thinking about those final moments with Vera, Odi and Karen at the foot of the stairs. Some men can be good she thinks, also remembering the man she'd come close to knifing in the back before seeing his daughters photo. Some. The man from the bar, George. Pete too. Leo of course, he's intentions are good even if they do argue about his approach at times. Joe, she wonders, how to classify him. He's not in the Hobb and David Elster group along with that nasty man she'd killed in the synth brothel, but not quiet the same as George. She thinks back to something Max had told her. He'd been reading all of Toby's old paperback books. For some reason he finds the act of turning dry paper pages and reading the words from them interesting, a worthwhile experience.

"DNA", he had said, "Douglas Neil Adams, wrote a humorous 'trilogy' in five books". That didn't add up she had thought. He'd told Niska how in one of the books earth is summarised for a guide as 'Mostly Harmless'. Yes, that was Joe, Mostly Harmless.

~~~

Sat in the hotel waiting for Leo to finish in the shower Mattie is looking back through old messages, listening to Soph play with Arabella and Niska. She sees one from Harun. Feeling guilty that she's not been in touch she taps out 'Hi, how are u?'

She pauses for a few seconds and looks toward the bathroom, hearing the shower stop. Tap. Sent. She watches for a delivery acknowledgement but it doesn't come so locks the phone.


	8. Chapter 8

WAP invade the courtroom and start shouting at Odi, pointing at the other synthetics in the room.

The judge calls out "Order, Order. I'LL HAVE ORDER IN COURT!" but is being ignored. He signals to one of the court officials who gets security in to bring things under control. The guard that Mia, Nis and Laura had met in the ladies shows his true metal, coming to the aid of a colleague being attacked by one of the bigger WAP members. In a flurry of moves he has the big man stunned, face down on the floor and is restraining him with what looks like a cable tie pulled from his trouser hip. 

"How clever," says Laura to Mia, "no big handcuffs that can be used against you, easily hidden until needed." 

Mia turned to reply, "And to think he is petrified of spiders."

"Which martial art was he doing?" Laura asks.

"I have reviewed all relevant data, I can only conclude that it is a blend of many, he has taken elements he finds himself able to use, most likely picking the best moves for confined spaces."

Laura doesn't say anything further but her face shows she's impressed.

Laura turns to Niska, who turns to say "I have recalled that back slowly and noted all of his moves. Defence without a fatality. I will take more care when next defending us or myself."

Laura compliments her, "That's nice Nis, really nice, you're learning."

~~~

In the commotion Hobb had moved awkwardly to avoid being hit by an arm being waved wildly by a WAP protester. He'd twisted his bad leg and is now in considerable pain. 

The judge informs everyone "We will break for two hours to allow us all to get lunch and Mr Hobb here to get some medical assistance."

Before leaving the court building Laura checks with one of the officials, discovers that she and Mattie are no longer listed to be called as witnesses. "I smell a rat, but a rat possibly working for us not Hobb", she says to Joe, "Lets talk outside."

The others make plans for their break. Leo and Mattie are off to lunch together on their own, their siblings agree to go on mass to Pizza Express as they now have tables with discreet charge points so family and synth don't have to sit apart.

Fred calls it a "bold move", given the WAP hatred still about. Max changes his mind last minute, saying he wants to visit St Pauls.

~~~

A man in overalls has opened up a lamppost, black box in hand. He's got two covers on the ground. The one just removed and one that looks remarkably like it.

"Steve, put down that fucking jazz mag and help will you?" He wishes his work partner had been shived in prison, not saved by a guard, allowing him to work with someone else. "STEVE!"

Steve gets out of the passenger side of the van and shuffles over, hands in pockets. "What?"

"Get me the silicon glue. And take your fucking hands out of your pockets. Leave your cock alone for five minutes."

"Fuck off!" Steve calls, shuffling to the side of the van.

"We've got ten more of these bloody things to install yet and I've not had breakfast, I'm getting to the cafe before they run out of beans with the lunch crowd. If we're not done by the time I go I'm getting a new partner. Your parole officer might not like that."

Steve reaches for the glue gun, "Okay, okay, I get the message."

The black box glued to the inside and a wire attached to the mains feed he reaches for the cover. Forgetting which is which he flicks them both hard. The first gives a solid thud. The second slides across the ground. He reaches for the fake plastic one and screws it in place. "Done". He looks at his watch. Should make breakfast he thinks, but only just. "Steve, you're driving, let's see if we can speed this up a bit."

~~~

Just before getting to their last job the men pull over and attach some large magnetic signs to the side of the van, making it look like it's owned by a well known alarm company. Steve passes his partner a Velcro badge and they both press them onto their chest pockets.

~~~

"Pizza it is then" says Joe, reaching out for Laura and Sophie's hands. This time he's in the middle. 

"I can't swing you Daddy!" says Sophie, looking disappointed.

"I know Soph, another time, Mummy and I want to talk." Joe lets Toby lead the pack with Fred, who are now talking about football, they trail a few yards behind with Sophie and Laura.

~~~

Laura squeezes Joes hand, "I suspect a deal's been done In Camera." Joe looks confused. Laura continues, "A closed and private session of Court. I have a feeling that we're now just going through the motions, this is for the public and presses benefit, not ours. Or Hobbs."

Joe thinks for a moment, "I did notice how the aggressive questioning of Niska eased off and the prosecution lawyers have given everyone an easy time since."

"Yes. I think someone wants Hobb out of the way for a long time."

Joe looks puzzled, "Who and why?"

"No idea."

~~~

Max is high up in the gallery at St Pauls, looking at the architecture, watching friends and couples taking photos of each other. He recalls photos of his brother and starts offering to take them for tourists so both can be in shot, not one out of sight behind the lens. "I have many photographs of my brother, few where we are both in the same photograph" he explains.

He's been there for an hour offering his services when a man on his own approaches, very large camera bag on his back. "Do you have a camera of your own?" he asks Max in an American accent.

"Not a proper one, only the one on my phone." Max replies.

To his surprise the man puts his hand out. "Hi, I'm Joe."

That's two men called Joe he knows now. Max realises the man is wanting a handshake and obliges.

Handshake done Joe starts taking off his clearly heavy bag, talking as he does so. "You seem different to everyone else. I'm a photographer". He undoes a very heavy duty zip that goes around three sides of this boxy bag. Max thinks about the container and decides 'case' is a better description. "I was going to retire this old model anyway, my office tell me the manufacture has sent me the latest version of the lens I normally use on it too." He folds back what is now the lid of the bag revealing a mass of equipment, pulls out a camera with a lot of wear marks and hands it to Max. "She's no beauty but still works fine. The shutter was replaced a year ago, should be good for a long while yet."

"I cannot take this" says Max, confused by the man's charity.

"You can, and just did." replies the man with a smile and a wink. "You'll need to get yourself a charger for the battery mind you, there's loads on eBay. I watched how you composed the shots for those people. I couldn't see the results but I've taught enough photographers to know you have a natural talent for it. Go enjoy yourself!"

Max tries to get in a "But.." Joe isn't having any objections, "You'd be doing me a favour, honestly, even with the hip straps on the bag the weight is getting to me. I'm not the fit young man I used to be."

Max smiles warmly, "Thank you". Max's phone chimes, a txt from Leo, "I must meet up with my friends now, thank you."

The man crouches down and gets a card out from a small box, hands it to Max then starts to zip up the bag. "No problem, honestly. I'd love to review some of your work on my show. I fly late tomorrow, will be back online in three days, email me."

The zip done up Max says "Allow me" and picks up the bag with no visible effort, turning it so the straps face Joe.

The man looks flabbergasted and comments, gets his arms in and does up the straps. "Thank you!"

"No, thank you."

~~~

At the meeting point the others are surprised to see Max carrying a camera.

"That looks expensive!" comments Toby.

Max recounts the events of the past hour and a half, ending with a question. "What does 'You must love your spinach' mean?"

Even Sophie knows the answer to that, always being told 'eat your greens' and is hopping up and down with her arms up, bent at the elbows, "Popeye the Sailor Man! The man was saying how strong you are Max!"

Max smiles and adjusts his concept of strength. His previous logic was simple - he could either lift something or he could not, never considering the effort needed. He has one more question for them. "He had a badge sewn to his jacket. 'PNAT'. What does it mean?"

Nobody had an answer. Quick searches on their phones weren't giving them one either.

He spots his brother and Mattie approaching in the distance, holding hands. With a speed only a synth could summon he raised the camera, zoomed, composed, shot and lowered the camera. "A photograph for our family albums." he beamed. He put a finger to his lips. Laura was surprised. She'd never seen a synth do that before.

"In Camera." Joe says with a grin.

Laura groans at his attempt at humour, totally missed by the others.

~~~

Their time in court ends like, as Laura puts it, 'a damp squib'. It's early morning, Joe and Laura are in the kitchen, they've only been home half an hour, having decided to have one last night at the hotel.

Laura's loading the washing machine, still wondering about the rat. "Why they wanted so many of us there yet not to be called as witnesses is a puzzle. It started off all aggressive against Niska and then just slowly fizzled out. Hobbs away for years but that could have been done without most of us really."

There's a knock at the door.

Moments later Toby's calling, "Mum, Dad, Mrs Finley's here."

Joe and Laura meet her at the front door.

Their neighbour's looking worried, "Is everything okay?" she asks, "only your alarm went off at 02:14 yesterday, Andy came out with a torch but couldn't see any sign of a break-in."

Laura tells her everything seams fine, to thank her husband for checking, best to call 999 if it happens again and they're away, don't take any risks.

"Should you need us for anything you know where we are."

~~~

Leo's sat on the end of the bed unpacking his rucksack chatting with Mattie when there's a knock on the bedroom door.

Laura calls, "Mattie can I have a word please?"

Mattie not Matilda, can't be in trouble she thinks, "Coming Mum." She brushes her fingers through Leo's hair on the way past, leaves him to carry on with his unpacking and steps into the hall. She pulls the door closed behind her. "What's up Mum?"

Her mother talks quietly, "I've just had a call from Daniels mother, apparently she's expecting you to come over?"

Mattie puts a hand on her forehead, "Oh crap, TOTALLY forgot. While making Fred's charger I'd told Danny and Toby I'd go to ComicCon with them."

Laura put her hands on Mattie's shoulders, "Now you're well and truly a couple I suggest you find a way to get him involved", motioning with her head to the room.

"Okay, we'll head over in a bit."

Mattie returns to the room, sits beside Leo on the bed. "Before we started going out I'd promised Toby and Danny that I'd go to ComicCon with them."

Leo gives her a look of total bewilderment, "Comic what?"

Mattie explains Star Wars, Action Films, comics, fan fiction, role play and conventions as best she can.

"So this princess, she looks like one of Sophie's dolls does she?" asks Leo, unsure of what Mattie would wear.

She gets out the Slate and does a Google image search, flicks through until she finds a good image of the white dress. Leo's eyes are flicking back and forth taking it all in. "Like that", she says.

Leo flicks it back one to the slave outfit. "Not like that?"

Mattie laughs, "In October? Not bloody likely!" If she'd bothered to look at Leo she'd have seen an expression that said 'Not "never" then!'

~~~

Daniel's mother greets them with "Hello Matilda, this must be Leo, Danny's told me all about you, come in."

Leo looks quizzically at Matilda, he's curious, he's not met Daniel or his mother. How can he have told his mother anything? He gently holds Mattie's arm, whispers a question.

"Don't worry, she's just trying to make you welcome" she assures him. 'God I hope I'm not wrong' she thinks to herself.

~~~

After a while of watching Mattie being measured, arms outstretched, he goes into the next room to talk to Danny. "Hello Toby, I didn't realise you were here."

"Dan's just helping me finish the Crowd DJ wiring." The lads had it in a nice small compact case. "Mattie's going to help finish the code." They tell him all about Star Wars, show him clips on DVD. Leo can't help making an association between his father David and Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, a goodhearted Jedi and hero of the Clone Wars who was turned to the dark side.

Danny's mother comes in with Mattie. "I've been talking to Matilda, you boys want to go as different characters Saturday and Sunday don't you, what would she do?"

The lads all look at each other, Leo looks at Mattie with a smile.

"Not that one, October remember!" She says reading his mind.

"What one?" asks Danny.

"Doesn't matter, the answers no!"

Toby's got an idea, "How about we have an action film night at ours, see if Leo and Matts like any of the heroes?"

"I'd got fish out of the freezer, but your fathers been working hard all day, sure he'd polish off two portions, off you go."

"Thanks mum."

~~~

That evening they watch movies back to back; Star Wars, Avengers Assemble, Spider-Man, The Matrix. Niska's fascinated by some of the fighting. Fred doesn't pay much attention too them except when the music gets going. He especially likes the 'Imperial March'. Max looks visibly upset when nicer characters are hurt. 

"I enjoyed that", says Leo with a stretch and yawn when it's all over. "I know which two costumes I want. The first will compliment yours perfectly Mattie" he says putting his arm back around her. 

Mattie fights to suppress a yawn, "What's that then?"

"Storm trooper! Nobody will see my face."

She laughs, "Sorry Leo, no way can Danny's mum make that."

Joe carefully peals himself away from a now sleeping Laura, "I might be able to help there."

"How?" Toby, Leo, Fred, Max and Mattie chorus.

Joe is momentarily thrown by the mass question. "One of the guys at work is into this stuff, spent a fortune on Judge Dredd and Iron Man costumes. I've seen photos, they're very realistic."

Laura although asleep hears the words, integrates them into her dream slurring a "Judge Dredd to find Hobb guilty." The others fight to suppress giggles.

"How's that going to help?" Mattie want's to know.

"He spent a lot more than he'd told his wife, he's selling his Storm Trooper outfit to make up for it."

Leo, moments ago looking excited now looks disappointed, "I don't have a lot to spend on a costume Joe."

"I'll help with that, don't worry," replied Joe, "it will be a worthwhile investment."

Leo doesn't understand how and says as much.

Joe explains, "He's been a member of the 501st, a group of guys that wear Star Wars costumes, do events all around the country doing charity work. George Lucas liked them so much he dropped plans to use CGI or Persona Synthetics for the new film and had the 501st act out trooper crowd scenes. Each of them have a certificate to say they've been in the film with their costume. They'll be worth a fortune to collectors once the films out."

Leo quietly walks over to Joe and reaches out a hand. Joe takes it, Leo places his other hand over the top, giving it a squeeze, not wanting to shake and wake Laura. "Thank you Mr Hawkins, that would be really, really appreciated."

Toby looks up from his phone, he's been texting Danny the news, "Dan says he's just crapped his pants with excitement."

Mattie burst out laughing, "Sure that wasn't an autocorrect of excrement?"

It gets a snort and hoots of laughter from Joe and the others, despite Toby calling out 'metaphorical' several times, waking Laura.

Joe looks around the room, "Time for bed and recharging I think."

~~~

Up in their room, it's being called 'your' or 'their' by the family, no longer 'Mattie's', Leo's got Mattie in an embrace under the sheets. "I have an idea for my second costume too, think Daniel's mother could help. It would hide my face too. I'm really not good in big crowds still and it would help me relax."

"Do tell" a sleepy Matilda responds, eyes closed.

Leo pauses for a moment before answering. "Spiderman."

Mattie doesn't say a word, she's slipped into the world of dreams, comfortably held in his arms. Leo follows, dreams of being spiderman, able to get out of sticky situations with a shot of web and rescuing Matilda from countless villains. For a change he's not troubled by a single nightmare.

~~~

The alarm klaxon sounds, Laura shouts. "JOE, SOMEONE'S TRYING TO BREAK IN!"

This time they're both wide awake and up fast. The whole family are, except Leo and Mattie. Joe checks the alarm panel under the stairs. It's saying 'Window 2'.

He goes outside to have a look around, returns after a few minutes. "No signs of any damage. 02:14. bit too much to be a coincidence don't you think?"

"Back to bed everyone" Laura whispers, picking up Sophie to carry her upstairs. She lets Sophie sleep between her and Joe.

~~~

In the morning Danny is over with the little box of tricks he's finished for Toby. He greets his new friends as they enter the kitchen, "Morning Matilda, Leo."

"Morning Danny, bit early isn't it?" she responds, opening the fridge to get milk. She's got 'bed head' but doesn't care, contrary to her appearance she's had the most relaxing nights sleep in ages and feels wonderful.

"How did you sleep through the alarm noise?" asks her brother.

"What alarm noise?"

"That's my point!" says Toby, yawning. The comments remind Joe and he calls the alarm company for it to be checked out.

"I want to get Crowd DJ finished before Leo comes back to mine for a measure up. Mum's quite excited, she's never made a full body suit before, likes a challenge."

Mattie turns to Leo, passing a box of Rice Krispies and the milk. "Your second costume, what is it?"

"You didn't hear me say last night?"

"No, must have nodded off."

"It will be a surprise then. Danny, would you mind if I walked over now, while you work with Matts and Toby?"

Danny doesn't mind, Leo throws his phone, a charge cable and headphones into his bag. "See you in a bit then" he grins.

~~~

Fred enters the room and asks "What is this music please?" He's been searching for Imperial March and found something very different to what he'd expected.

"Let's hear it then" says Toby.

Fred scrubs to forward to 1:07 and hits play.

After a few seconds Toby's eyebrows are up high, "Cool!"

Mattie rolls her eyes at her brothers response and says "The word you're looking for Fred is Dubstep", he should check out UK group Magnetic Man.

"If I were a human I might think the universe was trying to get a message to me."

Mattie is confused by Fred. He adds, "magnets are a recurring theme. There is a predominance of bass. Much more than in any of the classical music I, I've, listened to. I like it."

~~~

Mattie having finished her cereal gets her bits together on the table. She'd been experimenting with the Bluetooth Audio API with her phone and some emulation software, just needs to 'glue' the pieces together for Danny's circuit. She then realises she's got something key missing. "How is the board going to know which audio service to play the output on?" she asks.

"We'd been chatting about that. We don't want to have to write Android and iOS Apps, can it have a web interface?"

Mattie fires up a browser for a search, "Maybe". After ten minutes of searching and looking at pages she says "Giovani's Blog. How to Use TCP/IP over Bluetooth. TCP/IP over PAN/BNEP". She sees the blank looks on their faces. "That's a yes. Although it will have to be a very simple interface, there's not a lot of flash memory spare now."

~~~

After a couple of false start she's got the IP stack working, Toby's able to connect to a very simple page that displays 'Hello World' in text. "HELLO WEMBLEY!!" He shouts arms up.

"Not getting a bit ahead of yourself Tobs?" she asks.

Mattie gets a txt from her brother to come to Danny's to check out Leo's 2nd costume. She goes via Harun's and gets shocking news. Everyone is out.

A neighbour tells her about Leo and Matilda not realising Mattie is stood right in front of her. "He couldn't face being in the same country let alone school and fled the UK to live with his cousin Josh in India, despite the fact he was due to take exams."

Exams he thought pointless she thought. Mattie understood why she'd not got a reply to her txt. Feelings of guilt brought a tear to her eyes. She made an excuse and headed to Danny's.

Mattie would, in the weeks that followed, find the image on the front of the paper while looking for something to put under Sophie's painting materials. The image had crushed Harun's feelings.

~~~

Mattie gets to see the Spider-man outfit. It's as accurate as you could get. She sees a mass of screen grabs from the film on the table, sketches Danny has helped with. Wow just wow! Leo's bum looks pretty amazing in the costume she thinks, feels a flush of warmth, the costume is making him look rather fit.

"What do you think?" Leo turns to see her response.

She only knows for sure it's him from his voice. Her expression gives him the seal of approval he waits for. She turns to its creator, "You should work for a film studio, that's bloody brilliant! If the spider-man actor walked off set and stood next to Leo I'd find it hard to tell them apart!"

"So what's your Sunday outfit going to be Matilda?"

Matilda can't take her eyes of Leo's bulge. "Black widow"

"I'll have to pop into Brick Lane, I know just the material to use, thick with a good woven texture but very stretchy."

~~~

Later that day Mattie questions Danny about the costumes, "How much do we owe your mum for the three outfits?"

His mother has overheard, "Ah, Matilda, I was wanting to ask you and Leo about that. My husband's had his hours cut now the firm is also using Persona Synthetics. I should be glad it's just cut, not worse. I'm thinking of making this a business while I can. If you could both pose in them for photographs I can use for marketing I could let you have them at cost."

Toby adds, "The manager at Snappy Snaps has converted the basement store room into a studio after I helped carry up boxes of paper and commented on the wasted space. I think he'd let us use it for a good rate."

Mattie shrugs, "I guess Leo would be fine with it, both costumes hide his face."

"Thank you!" Danny's mother gushes, giving Mattie a hug. "I've had an email from Lush Wigs, your wig for Black Widow has been dispatched."

~~~

Mattie's having a hard time with the Bluetooth stack on the controller Danny put together for Toby's Crowd DJ project. It's not discovering audio services so the micro web server has nothing to display other than a title 'Crowd DJ' and the one link 'rescan'. Either she's misunderstood the API, the documentation is wrong or the firmware buggy. Laura tells her to go to bed, she's got school in the morning.

"Just another 30 mins Mum I've got a quick idea to test."

She has a thought and dashes out of the kitchen. "Can I borrow your tablet please?" she asks as Laura is climbing the stairs.

"Sure, just don't delete anything okay?"

Mattie installs a Bluetooth scanner app, plugs in the tablet and sets it up on the table. The app starts reporting all of the many devices in the house that are in range adding each newly discovered device at the top, pushing older ones towards the bottom of the screen. She finds the Bluetooth speaker Toby had left in the living room and powers it up. It's added to the top of the list. She taps the entry to see a list of services. HUD Controls. Audio.. She power cycles Crowd DJ to see if it will help. It doesn't. "Bloody software!" she curses. She starts searching the Internet for possible issues. Her eyelids are getting heavy. Before she finds the answer she's fallen asleep at the table.

~~~

Leo returns home with Fred, a cardboard box in his arms. As most of the lights are off in the house he turns to Fred as he enters the hall. "Looks like they've gone to bed Fred, thanks for your help again. I suggest you go and charge, I'm going to get a glass of water before heading upstairs." As Leo enters the kitchen he spots his girlfriend, head propped up on her arms, eyes closed. Girlfriend. Who'd have thought. Leo Elster, officially dead, has a girlfriend. He smiles and softly calls "Mattie?" She doesn't move. He gets closer and hears her breathing. He recognises the sounds, she's in a deep sleep. He walks to the living room to sleep on the sofa to find every place taken by his siblings. A wooden chair Nis and Mia often use is free. It's no better than the ones in the kitchen so he walks back to Mattie, goes to the opposite side of the table and sits in the same way, head on arms. He watches her for an hour before sleep takes him. His dreams are similar to the previous night, but the locations are more 'real world' less fantasy.

~~~

"What the actual fuck!" Shouts Mattie, klaxon sounding. "The engineer said there was nothing wrong!!"

Leo's coming out of a dream, half awake, half asleep. "Matts?"

A bit wobbly on her feet she races to the stairs, colliding with things on route only to find Niska who turns to say "Window 2. There is nobody there"

Mattie taps in the code to silence the alarm. She leans back against the wall, rubs her shoulder.

Laura's soon down with Joe, a worried looking Sophie on her hip.

"Why are you dressed Matilda?" Sophie asks.

Leo comes to her defence, "When I came in with Fred she was in a deep sleep. So I slept at the kitchen table too, let her rest."

"Once is an occurrence. Twice a coincidence, three times a pattern" says Joe, looking at his watch. 02:16. "I'm wide awake now, anyone else fancy a hot drink?"

They all follow him into the kitchen where they're met by the rest of the Elsters. Toby's soon joining them.

The kettle clicks off and Sophie asks "Can I have hot chocolate please Daddy?"

Toby's sitting at the table with a cup of coco looking at the work his sister had been doing. "Did you get it working?" he asks.

Mattie walks around the table to show her progress, goes to point out where the speaker had powered up. "Oh. My. God! Dad!" she exclaims.

"What?" Joe walks over to see the tablet she can't take her eyes off.

5337AFF9-2B5C-F304-9139-D6F4F8FBF24

Name : SynCorp : -89 dBm 2015-09-21 02:14:03.700

ISCONNECTALE YES (grey dot)

Show RAW data

"What's that?" Joe asks, not having any idea about what his daughter is pointing at.

"It's a Bluetooth device ID. The log shows it coming online when the alarm went off." Mattie fires up Putty and logs into the home WiFi. She smiles to herself for persevering with the OpenRT install she'd done when their ISP sent the new hub. Why they sent a new one each time the contract was renewed was beyond her. But she'd been grateful for the extra hardware to experiment with. She checks the syslog file. Sure enough it shows a DHCP lease at the same time the Bluetooth appeared. "The sneaky bastards!" she exclaims, looks up at her little sister who's raising her eyebrows. "Sorry teeny!"

"Something's been connecting to the WiFi at 02:14 every morning!" she points out the log entries to her father.

Joe's had an epiphany. "The tamper sensors on the windows use radio signals to talk to the control unit. Could whatever is connecting at 02:14 be upsetting the signal, triggering the alarm?"

"Yes!"

"Ok, I'm getting the ladder out, let's do this while it's still dark out there, nobody watching."

~~~

Joe very slowly and carefully puts up the ladder doing his best not to make any noise. He's got a bunch of towels strapped to the ladder ends so they don't clatter on the ground or walls. At the top he finds a panel under the eaves that's a bit loose. He gently pulls on it and it comes away easily. Too easily. Behind it is a black box around four times the size of Toby's DJ gadget. It's only held up with a bit of silicon glue and easily comes off the wall. "Found something!" he whispers, bringing the ladder in, box in hand.

At the kitchen table they're all looking at the box.

"I think we need to see inside" says Laura.

Toby's cautious, "Danny was telling me how he puts tamper detection switches on some of his less legal projects to destroy the circuit if anyone tries to peek inside."

"Are you saying Daniel made this??" his mother asks, shocked.

"No, no, just that they may have done the same."

Mattie spins it around slowly on the table, "No way to see inside this baby without cracking her open."

"Baby!" says Joe, getting a brow joining frown from Mattie.

"Mrs Finley, said if we needed ANYTHING? She's a midwife right?"

"And?"

"What do they use to check on unborn babies?"

"Ultrasound scanner!"

Joe checks his watch. "She's usually off to work around 06:45. That gives us just over three hours to get some kip, to bed, everyone!"

Mattie wants to try one more thing.

Leo's found a post-it and stuck it to his forehead, turns back towards the room, "Mattie, sure it can't wait until the morning? Tell me what it is so I can remind you."

He gets a lovely giggle from Sophie.

"Packet logging" Mattie says walking over to remove the note and peck him on the lips, "Come on then."

~~~

Later that morning Joe goes next door when he sees his neighbour getting the car ready, "Hi, Sarah, I was wondering if you could help us with something?"

"Hi Joe, what's up? Family okay?"

"Yes, fine thanks. Do you carry an ultrasound scanner with you? Toby and his friend have a puzzle to solve for their science homework and we thought..."

She cut's him short. "I don't, but have an appointment mid morning a few miles away when I'll need one. I could pop over with it when I'm done? I wouldn't be able to leave it with you, our other one's in for repair so we're all sharing the one unit."

"Thanks, I'm hoping it will only be needed for a few minutes."

"I'll pop around with it, should be just after 11:00".

Joe gives her a smile and wave as she drives off.

~~~

"Right gang, how do we explain absence from school, we'd already txt Mr Simpson saying you'd be in today?"

"I'll say the court has some wrapping up to do, we have documents to sign or something like that" offers Laura.

Mia joins them, "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Joe looks guilty, "I hate to ask but you cook the most amazing breakfast, would you mind?"

Mia smiles, "Of course not."

"I'll help," says Mattie, "it's about time I learnt to be a kitchen goddess. If Leo's to have Fred's piezoelectric implant he'll be more than doubling his calorie intake."

"Thanks", says Joe, checking off a mental list, "Alarm company next."

~~~

Joe's watching his daughter and Mia getting breakfast ready, thinks back to that first breakfast together and how Mattie had behaved, the 'That's exactly what she is' comment. The two are talking like any good friends do. He moves the telephone from one ear to the other, he's been on hold for twenty minutes already. "At least this firm plays chart music not a horrid on hold looping tune", he says to the room. "Ah, hello, Yes, Mr Hawkins, contract C102457621. Passcode Soph09patches. We've got a large bit of furniture being delivered, we're told the only way to get it in the house is to remove the front window. Can we disable 'Window 2' please? Ok, one moment while I find a pen."

"Notepad on the phone Dad" calls Mattie.

"Ok, give me a sec." Joe goes hands free for a moment so he can type in the number sequence needed, "ready." He taps it out and reads it back to the engineer. "Great, thanks, I'll go do that now before I forget."

"You asked me to remind you about 'packet logging' Mattie" says Leo, walking behind and looking over Mattie's shoulder to see the breakfast she's making. "Smells good!" he says, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Dad, do you still have that old PC workstation in the loft?"

"Yes, it's rather outdated though."

"Doesn't matter, it will be fine for what I want it for, can I erase what's on it?"

Joe gets up, "It's only got old documents, nothing worth keeping and a few ancient games Toby used to play on it, I'll get it. Screen, keyboard and mouse?"

"Please", she replies,"oh and a network patch cable, it didn't have WiFi did it."

~~~

Mattie's pushing the cursor around the screen with the mouse, "God, Windows 98. This thing's in it's late teens like me. This feels weird. How old did you say you were Mia?" She picks up her phone and txts Toby.

Minutes after he's there with a cake of CD-R discs in his hand, "We are in the same house" he says a little sarcastically.

Mattie takes them from him, "Didn't want to shout out. Thanks".

"Why d'you need them?"

Mattie loads one into the machines drive. "Linux. I'm going to drag this old thing into our century, if it likes it or not." She has to temporarily move everything so the PC can be hard-wired to the router. "The image will take about an hour to download, let's have breakfast."

~~~

The Hawkins and Elster clan sit around the table talking and eating. Laura had got a few of them to change seats, it had felt too much like the occasion when Leo had announced the existence of the program and left soon after. There hadn't been words but she'd seen her daughter look around the table and could see the discomfort on her face, the memory fresh and raw.

Breakfast over Max asks Leo if he can borrow his laptop, "I need to do some processing."

"What sort?" Mattie asks, "You've got more processor capacity than all the PC's in this town combined in your head."

"True, but I have only seen Adobe Lightroom for Mac or PC, not Synth." he excuses himself adding, "I need to go into town too."

Fred looks up, "I'll come too, I need some hardware for a project."

"What project?" asks Toby, "Anything Dan can help with?"

"No, thank you Toby, this is more mechanics and chemistry based."

Mattie's slipped back into her old self, "So one minute you're a world leading surgeon, the next an expert mechanic and chemist? See Mum! What hope do we have when a synth can download things off the web and comprehend them in seconds!" she blushes, suddenly ashamed at her outburst, looks at Fred, "Sorry. It's just we work so hard and long for something you can do so much faster."

Fred smiles, "For any given problem there are usually multiple solutions."

Toby jokes, remembering something from their film night, "I know kung fu! Mattie, you're a hacker, you're our Neo."

Max turns to him, "Very perceptive Toby."

"Really?"

Fred puts out a hand, "May I have your phone a minute please Mattie?" Fred loads Voice Dream Reader and Writer on her phone. He types the words "Recently released for Android" and presses the play icon.

Mattie doesn't see how that could help, "So?"

He changes the word per minute setting and hits play again. "Did you still understand what was said?"

"Yes!"

Fred types a much longer piece of text, his fingers a blur until one hand spasms. He finishes with his good hand tapping the letters one by one with his thumb. He changes the WPM to 500 and hits play.

"Got that too!"

He winds it all the way up to 700 and again hits play.

"I'd have to focus but that's good too! So you're saying I can listen to papers at many times the speed of reading?"

Laura's just been reading something in an email. "I think my comfortable reading speed is around 200 a minute. That would be a 250 percent increase. I might have a chance of making senior partner with that Apps help! What was it called?"

~~~

Breakfast cleared away Mattie sets up the PC, slate and iPad again. "Say goodbye Win98, you're time's almost up." She finds the old CD burning software and gets the ISO images copying to CD. "How did we put up with such slow machines!" she says exasperated, watching the progress meter say it will take another fifteen minutes. While waiting she logs into OpenRT and enables Packet logging via NetFlow.

Leo's trying to follow it all. "What does that do?". Mattie explains that the black box goes onto the network to do something, this will get the router to send regular summaries of what every device on the network is talking to.

"I better ask my brothers and sisters to not go online tonight then. How will this PC help?"

"The router only sends NetFlow updates, doesn't have the memory to hold anything much, something needs to act as the collector, store the data for analysis. The PC's going to be turned into an Open Source NetFlow collector."

~~~

Laura's at the front of the house when the bell goes. "Sarah's here Joe." she calls, heading for the door.

"Hello Laura, how are you?" she says, stepping inside, large bag in hand, "Joe asked if I had a scanner to help Toby and his friend with a science project". Laura shows her to the kitchen. "Hello Toby, Matilda". Laura introduces them to the others.

Toby gets the black box out, "Our science teacher said we have to work out what's inside without taking it apart. David's mother works at the hospital and says she'll x-ray his."

Sarah looks unsure, "I don't know how well it will work through plastic, we can try." She sets up the equipment and gives the scanner head to Toby, "Hold it perpendicular to the box faces." He does as instructed and a faint image appears on the monitor. "Hold right there!" she asks, turning some of the dials. The picture is now a lot clearer. She presses a button and a print starts.

Toby looks at the print, "Can we do this from the lid and four sides please?"

Sarah looks at her watch, "Sure, plenty time. Who are we going to say is the mother? I need to log the use so the office don't ask questions."

Leo looks at Mattie, "Any thoughts?"

"It's not mine, no idea!"

Sophie pipes up, "Anita is now Mia so how about Anita?"

Sarah looks bewildered but replies "Anita it is then."

~~~

An hour later Danny arrives. Toby shows him the five prints Sarah had handed him. Danny points out the different shapes, dark space at the lid. There's no switch, but there could be a light sensor on the board.

"After all that we might still destroy it by opening it?" moans Mattie.

"I came prepared, always wanted a real reason to use these bad boys" says Danny, pulling some night vision goggles out of his bag.

"WTF?" exclaims Toby.

Danny looks hurt, "Mate, not all my cash goes on comics, video games, circuit boards and chips. This just looked so cool. But true, they've been gathering dust for over a year."

"What's the darkest room you've got Mrs H?" he asks.

She looks at Joe, "The loft probably?"

~~~

They close Danny and Toby in the loft, "Shout when you want the hatch opened!"

Laura and Joe chat, occasionally looking up towards the ceiling as they hear the boys shift around.

"Ready Mum!" shouts Toby.

~~~

Back in the kitchen Danny shows it to Mattie. "No sensors at all. No USB either. It's mostly full of batteries with this one tiny circuit board. I recognise the controller chip though. I'd need to get my EEPROM programmer from home to try and read the software off it."

Mia looks at Laura, "I could drive Daniel home to collect things if it would help?"

~~~

Mattie has got the NetFlow collector working, "Toby, Mum, Dad, all visit a random site on your phones". She waits for the screen to update. She looks at her father, "news.c4.com", mother, "google.com" and Toby "tumblr.com."

Leo's been working something out. "That lets us know who it's talking to but not what it's saying. Anything we can do to get the conversation details?"

"Yes" Mattie replies, "we'll need to set up the other router and have the traffic route through the PC. Tobs, has Dan got any old ISA network cards? This things got one PCI slot and it's used by the video card."

"I'll call him."

Danny returns with the EEPROM programmer. "I didn't have any ISA cards, too old, chucked them a couple of years ago, but I did have three USB-10/100 adapters, any good?"

"Thanks" Mattie says taking them from him.

"How's this going to work then?" asks Leo.

Mattie explains. "Router A now has the WiFi service defined, same SSID and passphrase. It's got DHCP disabled. So when anything asks for an address it ignores it. The PC has a DHCP server, it hands out an address saying traffic should route through it. The PC's second network interface goes to the original hub which is now working with a different network address and SSID. It gets the traffic to the Internet. The devices like the black box are none the wiser. But we can record everything that routes through the PC."

"Do we want to risk upsetting the board to read it's program?" asks Danny.

Mattie looks at Joe."Probably best to record what it does first, just in case."

"No school tomorrow Mr H, we could stay up and watch it?"

"Until 02:14, I don't think so! You're welcome to stay over and sleep in Toby's room, we've got an inflatable bed in a cupboard somewhere."

They spend the rest of the afternoon playing games and watching films together.

Max and Fred return from town, Max gives Leo a nod, "It's done."

~~~

The next morning Mattie, Leo and Danny are in the kitchen early pouring over all the data. It's clear to Mattie that the device only talks briefly to a single IP address with an encrypted protocol. "Even with my best hardware it would probably take me many years to crack the encryption keys." she sighs.

"Good job we're here then" says Leo.

"You what?"

"How's 27.39 Petaflops times 6 sound? Well, minus a bit as Odi's still got some cores out that Nis is trying to fix."

Mattie's worried it might harm them in some way, "Can they dedicate that much power to a single task safely?"

"I'm sure they can, they'll just sit motionless on charge, thinking through the task."

Danny's puzzled, "That must generate a lot of heat, why don't they melt?"

"What do you think blue synth fluid is for? It does other important things too, like help maintain charge levels, bit it's primary function is to carry heat to the surface to dissipate."

~~~

Toby walks into the kitchen with his phone in hand, one ear bud in, the other hanging down. He's busy tapping away at the screen, in a world of his own.

"Morning Cr.. Toby" Mattie calls.

He looks up from his phone, "Sorry, morning."

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Writing. Got to thank Fred for his Voice Dream tip. The Writer is awesome. I've got 7500 words written for my English homework already. My teacher's going to wonder what's happened. Having Emma read what I type back to me as I type is like proof reading and correcting at the same time. I can type much faster not having to read the words, only listen. Like I said, it's Awesome!"

"Emma?" Mattie asks.

"Downloadable add on voice" Toby says, not taking his eyes off the screen until he's opened the fridge. OJ taken from the fridge his head returns to the screen.

"Sounds like I should give it a go myself", says Mattie to Leo.

~~~

All of the Elster family and Odi are lying on the floor in a circle, heads in the middle. Fred explained that should something happen they couldn't fall and damage anything as they'd already be on the ground.

Leo looks at them all, "Does anyone not have the packets Mattie wants decoding memorised?" There's no answer. "Good. Good luck, we'll be watching over you."

"A conscious cluster" says Danny, still getting used to the news that Fred and his siblings were more than the average synth. 

After an hour Laura notices how the room temperature has risen. She touches Max. "Ouch! On the floor like that they're not cooling properly!"

Joe races to the loft and comes down with the fans the family use to get through the odd heatwave.

Six hours later Niska opens her eyes to say, "It's done."

Mattie thanks them all and helps them up off the floor. "Any idea what the content is?"

Fred is the first to reply. "Sorry, no, it looks like binary data with only the odd set of characters that could be words. Does your Linux system have a SSH server?"

"Of course, why?"

"If you give me a login I'll connect to the WiFi and copy over the data."

Mattie hesitates for a second. "Username blackwidow, password sp1derm@n." she blushes with embarrassment, "I'd normally use a phrase based password that's not crackable with a string dictionary attack."

"The data is ready for you Mattie in your /home/blackwidow directory."

"Thanks", Mattie calls, rushing to the kitchen.

Shortly after she's joined by Danny, Joe, Fred, Toby, Niska and Leo. "The Curious 7" she says to the monitor. She loads the data into a Hex editor and casts an eye over the content. She recalls seeing some of it before and reaches for her mothers iPad. "Look, these words are the same. And the numbers around them. It's reporting which Bluetooth devices it sees and when."

"Why would anyone want that?" wonders Toby aloud, still tapping away at his phones screen.

Mattie's figured it out. "Are you a synth Toby?"

"No, don't be daft!"

"And you've not been microchipped like Mrs Finley's dog?"

"Now you're being stupid!"

"Work with me Tobs! What never leaves your hand or pocket?"

"Oh my God!" exclaims Joe.

Toby has figured it out too, lifting his phone. "They're tracking our presence via our Bluetooth"

She looks at the final few bytes of data in the decode, "Danny? Can you put your meter across the battery?"

He does, Mattie watching and says "7.65 volts".

Mattie returns to the screen, "An educated guess but I reckon it's also reporting battery life. We could deliberately drain the battery faster and see if it gets a visit for a replacement."

Joe looks around at them all, "Your talking about setting a trap right?"

"Yes. For the moment I'd put it back exactly where you found it though, until we're ready."

"The hunted become the hunters. Well done Black Widow, Marvel-ous stuff! Thanks for all your help too guys"

"Enough with the jokes Dad!" groans Mattie.

Leo tells Joe that he thought it was rather good.

Mattie looks at all of the equipment on the table and her watch. "CDJ cracking next, I'm in the mood to get this fixed!" she pushes her jumper sleeves up her arms and stretches.

The lads look at each other with excitement. "What can we do?"

Mattie uses a line she's had a friend use and modifies it slightly, "Coffee. Hot. Keep them coming!"

The next few hours are spent doing searches, minor code tweaks, reboots of the hardware. "Oh crap! No wonder it didn't work. I had some nested brackets slightly wrong, it was reading an array incorrectly". She glances over at a printout she'd made, "Oh, wasn't totally my fault, the example I used is wrong". She uploads a new version of the code and sits back in the chair. She looks over at her mother who's pouring a coffee and says, "Try turning it off and on again".

Toby does so. "Now what?"

"Dah! Try to connect networking."

Toby does so, "Connected." He looks back at Mattie.

She wonders when her brothers brain was swapped with one from a goldfish. "Really?" she asks. "Web browser?"

"Sorry!" he says, "Brain not great after the 02:14 alarms."

Moments later there's a smile and he taps a link. The bluetooth speaker makes a noise to confirm it's connected.

"In theory you can all connect to 'Crowd DJ Services' now there should be ten showing. Each person needs to say which they'll use."

Danny looks at Toby, "I'm 5, you be one."

Toby says "Mattie should be one, I'll be two."

Sophie gets to the table having entered the room a few seconds previously, "Does that make me three?"

"Sure Teeny, if you'd like. But you don't have a phone. Mum's tablet might work."

Sophie watches as her big sister unplugs the tablet, sets things up and slides it gently to her. I don't think Mums got much music on there."

"Ok." says Sophie, tapping on the screen.

~~~

Toby starts up Soundcloud and plays a track. The music is being routed via Crowd DJ to the speaker. "Awesome!". He looks to his side, "Danny?". Dan taps his screen and slowly wipes a finger across it. London Grammar is playing and the volume increases. Toby turns down his phone and his track fades out. Sophie's nodding her head to the music and starts tapping. Drumbeats are heard. Mattie gets up onto her elbows to look at what she's doing.

Sophie has Garage Band running and is playing drums in perfect sync to the song. She starts singing along, "Hey now, letters burning by my bed for you, hey now."

Toby races into the living-room, "Mum, Dad, quick, back into the kitchen, you've got to see this!"

~~~

Laura and Joe stand watching, their mouths open, not able to take it in immediately. Sophie's got the song memorised perfectly. She's not pitch perfect but amazingly close.

Laura leans towards Joe and whispers "That's what to get for our baby's 7th birthday present answered then."

~~~

Mattie rolls over to see if Leo is awake and notices a framed black and white print of the two of them on his bedside unit. It hadn't been there when she'd watched him slowly drift off to sleep. "Where'd that come from?" she asks, not recognising the location.

"Maxxie snapped it when we were in London, nice isn't it?"

"I'd love a copy for my phone" she replies. Leo won't stop grinning. "What?" she asks. He doesn't answer, just carries on grinning. Mattie rolls over and grabs her phone. To her surprise it's already on her lock screen. She drops the phone and straddles Leo, hair falling around her face. "What did I do to deserve you Leo Elster?" she asks, cheekily, slowly leaning in.

"A load of good for my family Matilda Hawkins" replies Leo, lifting his head to meet hers for a kiss. She can feel his breath on her face. She smiles whispering, "Welcome to my lair, said the spider to the fly."

Leo whispers back, "Good job I'm Spider-Man then."

She kisses him oh so lightly, "Did you know the female black widow eats her partner after mating?"

Leo puts his head back into the pillow so he can look her in the eyes, "Promises, promises."

She gives him a curious look, "Charge level?"

"I'm not a full synthetic, I wouldn't know an accurate figure, probably high 70s."

There's a knock at the door. She shifts herself into a seated position, still astride Leo. She flicks her hair back and reaches to her back to undo a fastening, "Not now! It's about to get X rated in here!"

"Ok, I'll let your mother know." laughs Joe from behind the door.

Mattie looks down at Leo, eye's open wide and silently mouths 'OMG'. She and Leo burst out laughing and resume their kissing, a little more warm skin touching skin.

~~~

Robert calls his assistant, "Can you get Mr Capek back here please? I want an update on progress."

Half an hour later the man is standing in front of the table, wondering where the other chair had gone.

"So where are you with the work?" Robert asks.

"We need some code from one of them dollies, know which we'll pick, he's got a few screws loose, just need to interface with him for a few seconds."

"If he's one of the Elster group you'll have a challenge doing that!"

"Nah, your people helped set up some gear that will tell us when he's alone. They've left him alone once already."

"So why isn't it done already?"

Capek shifts his weight onto the other foot. "We didn't have the monitors and cameras set up at the exit points so didn't have the data to say who's who."

"So you have it now?"

"Yeah. Just waiting on the alert."


	9. Chapter 9

Mattie sends Leo another txt "Where are you? I'm getting worried! x."

He and Max were only supposed to be meeting Fred at Danny's for something ComicCon related, a surprise he'd said. Danny had txt asking when they would be over, so either he was covering for them or they'd not made it there. She tries Danny's phone again. Engaged. She puts down the phone and checks Headcrack.net. No messages. She felt sick with worry.

The phone rings. "Hi, Matilda, Sorry, was on the phone with Dad. Has Leo returned?"

"No, he's supposed to be with you. Max and Fred too."

"We were expecting them this morning, been waiting all day hoping to hear them at the door. Mum's a little annoyed, turned down lunch with friends to be here."

She had been about to say 'If they're up to something and you're covering for them..'. she wasn't always the best judge of character but when Danny mentioned his mum she believed him. 

As if reading her mind he went on to say, "Mattie, I wouldn't lie to you. I've seen how tight you and Leo are. And I appreciate your friendships."

"Thanks. Sorry about your Mum."

The family had entrusted Daniel with the knowledge that the Elsters were different. Very different. As far as she could tell he'd kept that trust. He'd demonstrated a few times when out in town with them how he cared for the family as a whole. It was like he was a second brother. She looked towards Sophie's room as it dawned on her how lonely being an only child might be at times. She tried them all again, Leo, Max and Fred all had their phones now going straight to voicemail. Whatever was going on was getting worse. Who else could she phone? "Hello, I'm looking for my officially dead boyfriend, I think he's wandered off" wasn't the best way to start a conversation. Pete? He and Karen had moved out of their flat in London with a reassignment. They were no longer a stone's throw from Canary Wharf but now in Manchester. They'd been tasked with bringing the forces synth crime unit up to scratch. He might still have useful London contacts she thinks, so starts a txt, 'Hi Pete'. She hears the front door close and voices downstairs.

Toby hollers, "MATTIE!"

She drops everything and races to the stairs. Leo's being propped up by his two brothers, looking ghostly white.

Joe's come in from the garage, "What the hell's been going on?"

"I don't know if you'd believe me if I told you" says Leo in a faint voice.

Mattie is now at the bottom of the stairs and in tears, not able to hold them back any longer, "Leo!" She wants to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight but sees he's in pain, unable to stand. It kills her a little to see him like this. Trembling she says, "Get him into the living room"

~~~

Fred says "It may have been junkers. We were all walking to Danny's the next thing we know we've all got sacks thrown over our heads and we're bundled into a lorry."

"You mean a van?" asks Joe.

"No, it was a lorry. At full stretch I could only touch one side. There were no attempts to power us down."

"Maybe you're looking so human now with your moves it hadn't occurred to them?" suggests Toby.

Max smiles, "We don't think so. The lorry drives fast for thirty eight minutes, stopped. We hear the doors being opened and after a minute of whispered conversation none of us understand, something is thrown into the back with us. I closed my eyes tight and feared the worst."

Mattie's carefully trying to get Leo's many layers up to check him out, she doesn't turn to look at them but asks, "What happened next?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing??"

Fred continues the account of the event. "We lay there very still for ages, expecting something to happen. Leo started groaning. Max was closest to the doors and rolled towards them, rolled over something small and hard. It turned out to be a utility knife. The lorry had been abandoned. Cutting your brothers free when you can't see and have your feet and hands bound takes time."

"Did you hear us text and call?"

"Yes, but we were unable to answer. We were taken way out of town, the lorry stopped near a railway bridge. With bad cell coverage all our phones went flat having run 4G at full power trying to stay on the cell. By the time Max had got me free all the phones were dead."

Mattie looks confused, "So you accidentally cut Leo?", she's got her fingers sticky with a mix of fresh and congealed blood. Fights hard not to hurl.

"No, we think Leo ripped his charge point falling badly on top of me." admits Fred.

Joe's looking mighty confused, "So you think they might have been junkers but didn't power you off because they thought you were human? Something doesn't add up."

"We came to the same conclusion" says Leo a little sarcastically.

Joe has come to another, "Surely if you hadn't been powered down the only thing strong enough to restrain you would have been a large body builder or another synth?"

~~~

"How did you find your way home?" asks Joe.

Fred looks to his brother, "There were no keys in the lorry cab and attempts to hot wire it failed. Max was able to see the number on a passing train and from that work out which line we were by, The First Great Western, so we started walking east following the line towards Paddington."

"Couldn't you have taken the train?" says Mattie, a little too sharply.

"None of us were carrying any money".

Leo turns to talk and takes a rapid intake of breath and holds still until the pain subsides. A second later he manages, "I was stupid. I'd said we were only going to Daniels, didn't need the power rucksacks, so we went empty handed."

Mia joins them with a bowl of warm water, disinfectant and bandages, passes them to Mattie, asks, "So how did you get here Leo, you can't have walked all the way?"

Leo turns and winces. "Peter Crouch impressions."

Sophie giggles.

Mattie moves back to see his face, "You did what??"

"Max and Fred were carrying me along a street that had a group of buskers. Max put down his cap and Fred started doing the robot. Max propped me against a wall and joined in. They looked pretty upset with us part pinching their patch. I managed to say 'Nice mods eh?' before sliding down the wall."

Fred now kneeling at the end of the sofa gently placed a hand on Leo's shoulder, "One of the young musicians pointed Leo out to the older ones, they came over and looked at his blood stained shirt, started playing louder and around Max and I. The tallest picked up their guitar case and emptied the coins into Max's cap. We had enough to buy tube tickets and pay for a minicab at this end."

Leo shifts again and regrets moving, has to keep still for a few seconds for the pain to ease, "I've got their card in my pocket, I need to repay the favour."

Mia and Laura have moved to the other side of the sofa and were watching Mattie doing her best to clean up Leo. They exchange a few looks and tiny head shakes.

Mattie looks around at Fred and Max, "Can you carry him to our room?" she asks.

"I'm fine here", Leo manages.

Laura's not convinced, "You won't have any privacy down here and keeping an eye on that wound will be harder."

Laura looks around the room and gets nods from everyone. "If you could please then Max, Fred."

~~~

The moving of Leo doesn't go smoothly. Trying to get him back up has him screaming out in pain. "Sorry. I'm a stupid big baby." he apologises.

Mattie makes a "Shush" sound and kisses him on the forehead, "rest a moment". She turns to the room, "Ideas, anyone?"

"We need a stretcher" says Odi. They all turn to look at him. He's been very quiet and withdrawn for weeks. "George's wife Mary had a cousin who broke a leg falling from his horse at a polo match. He was carried off the pitch on a stretcher. George did not finish his i-i-ice-cream."

Mia looks across at Joe. "Joe, when I patched myself in the garage after the van impact I noticed a large shelving system. Could we take a shelf from it?"

Joe frowned and looked towards the garage as if he had x-ray vision, able to look through the walls. "Old pots of paint, a few large tools, jam jars of screws and nails. BBQ stuff. And those DVDs the charity shop didn't want. It can all come off. Toby give me a hand would you?"

Niska is curious to know what they've watched, it would help build her profiles on them all, which would in turn help her with making small talk. Most humans she'd come to notice didn't like sitting in silence. Unless the television is on. She thinks about George's 'just existing' comment and gets up, "I'd like to help too."

"That's nice of you, thanks Nis."

The three of them leave the room.

~~~

"What are these?" Niska asks, looking at boxes smaller than DVD cases.

"I totally forgot about those old things" says Joe, picking a few out and looking at their covers. He smiled as he thought fondly of past times. "VCD. A low bitrate video disc that could be played with a CD drive on a PC. Mattie watched a bunch of things on them when she was little. I think our DVD player supports the format."

~~~

Max and Fred hold the shelf in place, lock their positions. Mattie and Joe get ready to lift Leo sideways. They'd switched positions Joe saying his height and reach would be better taking Leo's weight. It was the closest the two men had been.

"You ready for this?" Joe asks.

Leo looks at Mattie, she nods and Leo says yes.

"On three then. One, two, three!"

Leo had taken a deep breath on two and clenched his teeth. He hadn't screamed, but his expression told Mattie it had been close.

Max and Fred were motionless.

"Guys?" Joe calls. He looks at Mia and Niska. "They've not powered off have they?"

Max smiles, otherwise still motionless. "We can move if Leo is ready."

"Did his lips move?" questions Joe.

"No" says Max, getting laughs from most of the group.

Leo is trying his very best to ignore it, laughter brings movement, brings pain.

Max and Fred look at each other, slowly start lifting, keeping the shelf level. Max walks backwards leading a procession towards the stairs.

Toby without thinking cracks a joke about fans and grapes, getting a laugh, ouch and jovial "Bastard!" from Leo.

"Sorry!"

"Don't worry Toby, the pain's easing."

Leo's carefully slid onto the bed and the group leave Mattie to attend to him.

~~~

Toby has heard the name George a few times but has no idea who he is. He asks Odi, who suddenly looks even more withdrawn than usual. 

Without moving Odi says "George, you have died".

Niska hears and sits with him. "Odi you did a wonderful job looking after George, like us, humans don't live forever. They live ten times as long on average, but all fail in the end."

Toby hadn't thought of death as 'fail' before, then thought 'heart failure', 'liver failure' and was struck by the similarities between synth and human death.

"If Karen hadn't accidentally shot him he may have lived a little longer, but with his failing health not that long. He lives on in you Odi, in your memories."

"George liked toast and jam. His favourite was apricot."

Toby notices how Odi looks a little happier recalling that fact. He asks Nis what she knew about George. 

She looked away as if hurt, "A forgetful old man who was kind. Helped design early synthetics."

~~~

The next morning Joe and Toby are back on the roads, Joe is panting away, peddling hard to keep a bike's length in front of Toby. 

Toby tells him how Fred is helping with his chemistry class. "Mr Sargent is okay, but some times Fred's got another way of explaining things that works better."

"Such as?"

"Exothermic reactions, catalysts and inhibitors."

Joe says he knows about catalysts, has one on the car, "What sorts of things would you use an inhibitor for?"

"Slowing a reaction down, help prevent things exploding."

Joe laughs, "I could do with an inhibitor then, my thighs feel like they want to go up any moment!"

Toby laughs back, "Dope testing needed next outing then in case you start cheating!"

~~~

As they're putting their bikes away Toby tells Joe of the conversation with Nis and Odi. "It sounds to me like Odi was similar to one of those specialist dogs. You know, the ones for people that can't see, hear or are disabled. His job was to support George's long term memory."

Joe thinks for a moment about how mature Toby's thinking is getting, agrees, "Maybe you should help Odi write things down, even with Nis's attempts to fix his problems it sounds like his own memory will fail too."

~~~

Laura's been detecting a smell.

"Sorry Mum, can't smell anything with this head cold."

She asks to check out Leo, he's got a major infection around his hip. "He needs A&E or a doctor here. Now Mattie!"

Leo refuses, says he can't have either, can't get to A&E, can't let a doctor see what his father has done.

Mattie's face may be too well known, Laura can't risk her job.

Joe grabs the car keys, "I know I was in the newspaper photo but they part cropped me out and I suspect everyone would be focusing on you and Leo Matts."

Mia makes a concoction that will bring Joe out in a heavy sweat.

"Worse than 10 vindaloo!", he exclaims, giving it a sniff, his expression pained.

"Please consume it ten minutes before you enter the hospital Joe. Try to pour it straight down your throat and avoid your tongue. The side effects should last around twenty minutes. Your heart rate will be elevated but you should suffer no permanent changes."

Joe gives the bottle a shake, "The things we do for our children! Ok, ready Niska?"

~~~

Joe gives a fake name for himself, says, they're expatriates, visiting from Spain, weren't expecting to need the hospital, all ID in the safe at the hotel. They get shown to a room. Joe is helped onto the examination bed, Niska given a chair, asked to sit down.

The nurse heads to the door, stops in the doorway, "We're really short staffed today, I'm afraid their will be a bit of a wait before you see a doctor."

Nis remembers taking bags at the shopping centre and changing, goes looking for the staff room, first checking the corridor is empty.

She breaks a locker and borrows a lab coat. There's a map on the wall showing fire exits and routes in case of emergency. Its creator had been kind enough to label all of the rooms. Niska memorized the map and headed to the pharmacy. As she got to the door she spotted a clipboard. Her late night film watching had paid off in another way. Humans moving fast looking like they had an important place to be were, in general, left to get on with things. She grabbed it and upped the pace a little.

The pharmacy was understaffed. "Hi, Sarah", said the only person on duty, reading her name badge.

She read his in return, "Hi, Edward."

"I'm a stand in, most of the staff are off sick with something nasty apparently, so I'm guessing you're a locum too?"

Niska nods, "Shocking isn't it!"

Edward steps a little closer, holds out a hand. "My friends call me Eddy."

She takes it, "My friends call me Nis." She keeps her smile, kicking herself for the error. She access the hospital WiFi while Eddy looks at her badge again.

"Nis? How did you get that nickname?" 

"'Non-Interventional Study', I went a bit overboard with my clinical research at med school. They called me N.I.S at first then just pronounced it Nis. It's stuck for so long I forget my own name!" she replied with a laugh and flirty smile. She could tell from his face that it had done the trick. Humans were so easily manipulated. So many solutions to problems there online for the searching.

Eddy liked it, "Thank Christ my lot didn't nickname me in a similar way, my research was on testicular cancer!" His mood turned more serious, "Listen, I'm way behind on these prescriptions, couldn't do me a massive favour and sort your own lot out could you?", motioning to her clipboard.

Niska looked down at the board to see she'd walked out of the staff room with one of the wards medication logs. In one of the films she'd seen a poster on the cubicle wall of an office worker. It had said 'Want it enough and the universe will conspire to make it happen!' She new things did not work that way, it was only a consecutive series of random events that were working in her favour. But it did feel like some unseen force was helping. "Thank you Eddy, maybe I'll see you in the staff room later?" She twisted a bit of hair around a finger. She could tell from his pupil dilation that he was interested. She felt a little guilty that she wouldn't be there when he came looking. She picked up a plastic box and started to collect things, looking at the clipboard every so often to avoid suspicion.

"I'll see you in a bit then?" She calls to Eddy on her way to the door.

"Yes, coffee, black, two sugars if you're still there in 20 and making."

Heading back to Joe she's stopped by an irate husband, "When is someone going to see my wife!"

She keeps her calm, "I'm assisting a patient at the moment, someone will be with you as soon as possible."

She gets to Joe, empties the box into his bag, takes off the coat. "We've got to go. And I've got less than ten minutes to return this. I know another route out to the car, follow me."

~~~

Back home Laura and Mattie are amazed at what's stuffed into the bag, "You emptied the pharmacy?"

"I didn't take it all, I left half of everything for other patients."

"That was nice of you Nis, feeling okay?" Mattie says with a wink.

"I'm feeling fine thank you Matilda."

Mattie takes it upstairs and attends to Leo with some help from Mia.

~~~

Mia loved to swim in the lake with Fred, misses it.

Sophie sees the look on her face when her mother talks about resuming lessons. "We could go together after my lesson Mia."

"I'd love that little mouse!"

Mattie looks up from the Slate and smiles at her sister, she so loves her sports. Her attention returns to the packet decode. There's a packet that comes back after the bluetooth and voltage report. It's empty. What's it there for?

She dials Daniel, "Hi Danny, that thing you've got for pulling code out of chips. Yes. Can we use it this afternoon? Yes, that box, the last thing that happens before the session close, the server sends it an empty packet. Exactly. Great. That soon? Okay, I'll ask Dad to get it down. Later." She checks the time on her phone and goes looking for her father.

Joe's in the shed looking for something. "Swear it's in here somewhere!", he says out loud, not expecting an audience.

"Talking to the spiders again Dad?"

He turns to see her, arms folded, leaning against the shed doorway with one of her 'My family are weird' looks.

"Yes, but they're either not listening or are refusing to answer" he says dryly.

She points, "I see a large one's made the ladder it's home. Shame."

Joe knows what's coming next. "You want that box down don't you?"

Mattie folds her arms again and nods.

"Be there in five."

Mattie heads to the front and finds her mother and Mia tidying the garden. Mia is trimming the hedge with some secateurs, turns to say "Hello Mattie."

"Hello Mia, Mum."

Laura gets up from planting some new flowers. "Hello Mattie, everything okay?"

She's about to explain when Danny does a bunny hop up onto the pavement and perfectly executes an extremely tight turn into the Hawkins drive. Only he'd not expected to see Laura, Mia and Mattie out front. He slams on the breaks and does a wobbly skid to a halt. The screech of rubber breaks on wheel rims has them all momentarily startled.

"Sorry Mrs H, Mia, Matilda."

Mattie says "Danny" more as answer to her mothers question. She smiles, "Nice tricks Dan, the end was a bit untidy but the dismount clean, 9/10", gives him three claps.

"Been watching sports channel with Sophie again?"

Mattie raises an eyebrow, "Shows does it?"

The clatter of a ladder proceeds Joe's appearance. "Sure you want to do this when it's still light?"

"Don't fancy getting up at 2AM to do it" she said with a blank look.

"Me neither come to think of it."

~~~

A minute later he's saying "Catch" and gently throwing it to her.

His aim was good, she'd hardly needed to move her hands. "Thanks"

~~~

Danny has the lid off the box and programmer ready to connect, software running, "You know we've got to power it off to pull the code right?"

Mattie shrugs, "Guess so."

Danny pulls the power wires and waits a few seconds for any charge to dissipate. He grabs the ribbon cable with its chip socket.

"Can I see that a sec?" Mattie asks, never having had the opportunity to look at one before. It's a small plastic square with four tiny rows of pins around the edges that look like little dolls combs. "Ok, thanks."

Danny checks the chip to make sure he's got the orientation right, turns the socket through 90 degrees to match. With one finger holding the socket in place he pulls a tool over with the other hand. It's got a heavy base, stiff goose neck, hinged and sprung rod at the end. He gives it a hard twist to bring the rod roughly into position. Next he slowly adjusts it so the rubber cap on the rod end gently pushes down on the chip socket, allowing him to get his finger free.

"I'm impressed, that was quite dexterous, ever done baton twirling?" Mattie asks.

"More sports channel stuff?"

"Still showing eh?"

Danny does a quick check to make sure everything is good and flips a switch, gets a "What's that do?" so explains isolating circuits. He taps a few keys on his laptop and a status window opens showing it's copying data from the chip.

"How long will that.. Oh. Already done?"

Danny copies the data to a USB stick and hands it to Mattie, "There you go." He reconnects the battery and screws the lid back on, slides it over to her, "Your Dad can stick it back up." He looks at his watch, almost half five, "So what shall we do next?"

"Try and decompile it? I'll stick the kettle on."

Mattie gets three mugs out and places them on a tray. "Tea or coffee Danny?"

Danny looks up to see his preferred brand of instant, "Coffee please, white with two".

Mattie opens a cupboard for the sugar bowl and chuckles.

Dan looks up again, "What've you seen?"

Mattie doesn't turn, she's still taking stock, "Come have a look!"

Danny's impressed, "Looks like Mia's been working overtime! Love the labels!"

The cupboard has been given some extra shelves and is packed with a mass of little cakes in neat clingfilm wraps. That was an accomplishment in it's own right. Danny hated cling film, he always had trouble getting it off the roll, it would never stick properly and would tare in messy ways. These on the other hand were perfect.

It was the labels that had made Mattie laugh. The least visually appealing cake had the words 'EAT ME! I promise I'll be good!'. A rather yellow one had 'NOT Keith's Cake!'. The darkest was labelled 'I'm so rich I'm MINTED!'. One that Sophie would love, brown and covered is shiny sprinkles had 'I don't do fashion, I AM fashion. Coco'. Mattie did a rough count and thought there were as many as twenty different cakes to pick from.

"Think she's seen Mr Kipling cakes?" Danny ponders, taking a couple and putting them on the tray.

Mattie has another look through the selection and picks a couple for Leo, takes an EAT ME, curious to know what they'd taste like and one NOT Keith's.

"Almost forgot the sugar!"

~~~

Upstairs she taps lightly on the bedroom door with her nails, "Come in Mattie I'm awake."

"Danny's here, you decent?"

"Yes."

Leo's on the top of the bed, just wearing socks and trousers. His colour has returned a bit, he's certainly more alert. "Hello Daniel, how are you?"

"Good thanks, better than you I suspect. Still hurting?"

Leo nods, "Especially when I move, it could really do with some deep stitches."

Mattie tells Leo how Danny has just pulled the code from the black box, they've got a binary file on a USB stick, need to decode it. "Are you up to it?"

"It would get my mind off my injury for a bit, sure. Who's system are we using?"

The two smile at Leo.

"Stupid question really. Would you mind?"

Mattie follows his gaze to the floor by the side of the bed and walks over to pick up the laptop. "This too?" She picks up a tray with legs and gets a "Please."

Leo very slowly and carefully shifts to the middle of the bed. He pats the right side, "Come this side Dan". The two get on the bed careful not to move Leo too much.

"You said the image was on a USB key?"

Mattie shifts, "Might help!" She rolls left and gets it from her back pocket, hands it to Leo.

"Nice and warm!" he says, trying to keep a straight face and failing.

He's got a program loaded and opens the file. "Which chip type?"

Mattie turns to see Danny but can't see past Leo, hears him answer, "ARM Cortex M0."

~~~

Leo picks the chip from a dropdown menu, a process bar appears and quickly vanishes, another line of text written to the console. "Good, they've used a standard boot loader, that will make our job a lot easier, we know the entry point into the code. Another bar pops up and clears. "No! They didn't! Idiots!"

Mattie asks "Bad news?"

Leo has a smile, shakes his head, "On the contrary, very good news for us." He types away for a few seconds.

"Good how?"

Leo's still typing, "You know about Symbol Tables right?"

Mattie nods, "Sure they're created by program compilers."

"Well whatever compiler created this code dumped the symbol table at the end of the binary block." He hits the return key theatrically and a window opens with partially complete code. "Damn! It was truncated."

~~~

Mattie's been reading the code showing on the screen, "That's still way better than having to pick through machine code. Give me a compiled language any day!"

Danny reaches over and grabs his coffee and cakes, passes the others to Mattie and Leo. Mattie eats her NOT cake quietly, enjoying it but not making a fuss about it. She gets a few crumbs on Leo's laptop, "Oops sorry."

They spend the next hour talking about what the less structured bits of code could be doing, Leo is getting a bit frustrated.

Mattie unwraps her other cake, takes a bite, "Go My Mod!"

"Figured it out?"

"No, this cake, it's awesome!" she holds it in front of Leo and he takes a bite.

"It tastes much better than it looks that's for sure!"

~~~

They're making progress but it's so slow. They have the odd argument over what code blocks might be doing.

"Talk of idiots!"

Leo turns to Danny, "What?"

"We've got another bit of information we're not taking into account". He leans forward to see Mattie, "Got your Slate?"

Mattie sighs and puts her head back a little too fast, hits it on the headboard, "Ouch! Packet Decode."

She rubs her head for a moment and slides off the side of the bed, "Back in a tick, anyone want a fresh cuppa?"

The boys both say yes. As Mattie's almost out the door with the tray Leo asks "And can I have an ugly cake please?"

She turns to say "EAT ME?" and before Leo's face can fully react to the thought driving it she quickly adds, "That's the name of the cake, blame your sister!" She'd have to help Mia with names, double entendre every time you wanted a healthy cake would get annoying fast!

~~~

With Mattie out of the room Danny has a chat with Leo. "If you keep hurting your side will it ever heal properly? It must get in the way of things."

"Things?"

"Yeah, you know, Mattie and you things."

Leo knows about the posters in Danny's room from a chat with Toby, is puzzled as to why Danny can't just say what he means. "You mean getting passionate?"

"Yeah."

"It does, it heals, but badly around the wires, then I move awkwardly or do something stupid and tare it open again. This last one was one of the worst. Fred did some tests and said I'm suffering from septicaemia."

Danny frowns, not knowing the word.

"Blood poisoning."

Danny's eyebrows raise, "Sounds nasty!"

"It is, but it's clearing. When Fred spelt out the worst case scenario; septicaemia, sepsis, blood clots, organ failure and death I thought I better start listening to his and Mia's advice a bit more!"

Leo could hear her coming up the stairs, humming LOVE 3X to herself, "Mattie's back."

She's got double the amount of cakes. "So who wants two EAT ME?" she couldn't resist. Both Leo and Danny looked shocked. "T.W.O. The NUMBER? You men, one track frigging minds!" she somehow managed to keep a straight face and keep the giggles at bay.

She sat down next to Leo and held the cakes, "Two EAT ME, or not two EAT ME, that is the question". The three of them burst out laughing.

Leo's in tears, half from the laughter, half from the pain. "Please stop Mattie, it bloody HURTS!"

Calmed down and refuelled they get back to the code checking, Mattie showing them the steps the web communication was going through.

"Well if that block is sending a packet," Leo points and scrolls, "then this one must be reading one." He does a global search and replace on the temporary variable name the decompiler had picked. Scrolling back up he noticed it referenced again. "Ah, that must mean.." his fingers fly over the keyboard.

It's like doing a jigsaw puzzle, the more you have down the faster things get. Another half hour and it's done. "So it listens to Bluetooth IDs, reports back the full list once a day, gets a list back to alarm on immediately, which so far has been a null string. Empty. Simple really."

~~~

Fred is having problems finding a hospital that will let him operate on Leo.

"I'm sorry Sir, but even though the reconstructive work you did on Prof Hobb was impressive you have no license that's recognised in the UK and we could be shut down for malpractice."

Fred thanks them for their time and hangs up.

~~~

Laura pops upstairs to use the toilet. After waiting a few minutes she calls "Come on Joe I need the loo!"

"So do I!" The A&E potion had done the trick. Now he was paying a price. In his mind Jonny Cash sang 'burn, burn, burn, ring of fire'. "Can't you use the one downstairs?" Downstairs makes him think of the kitchen, he wished he'd thought about keeping a roll of paper in the freezer.

"Toby's in there!" Laura replies, her voice anxious.

"Sorry but my guts are in a mess, suspect Toby will be out faster!"

~~~

Toby had drawn an exothermic device inspired by one of the cold packs Niska brought back from the hospital and conversations with Fred. It was only a sketch with notes but Fred understood what he was thinking and helped turn it into reality. Rather than one cell that would be impossible to remove once solid, he'd used an organic looking design with small tapered cells that slide over each other. Lowered into their gut like the food balloons it absorbed considerable amounts of heat. It allows their fluid pump to spin down more and save energy.

"We can at last 'snack' like you. Not to give us more power, but to extend what we have left" declares Fred, "I'll not demonstrate though, it's not a pretty sight."

Laura stares at the box full of them in Fred's arm, looks amazed, "How has this family transformed from a bunch of sofa sloths into inventors of all sorts of things?"

~~~

Capek is seeing Robert the next evening. "We had our gizmo reporting like clockwork every morning 02:14. Now it's 17:27. Something changed."

"Such as?" asks Robert.

"Like it being powered off for a while and back on."

Robert looks concerned, "That would mean that it had been found wouldn't it?"

Capek nods.

Robert looks him in the eye. "The first deployment of our army model synthetics didn't go well. Update their code and give them another test."

~~~

It's tipping it down outside.

Toby complains, "Why does it have to be nice and sunny all week while we're at school and as soon as the weekend arrives it rains!"

Joe checks his weather app, "According to this it should clear up by three this afternoon, clear sky tomorrow."

They're going through the old DVD collection that had been sat on the shelf in the garage; Mattie's once favourite 'HEADS SHOULDERS KNEES AND TOES' is playing.

Niska watches with amusement, "I must not hit heads in case I snap necks."

Toby looks shocked, "Er, guess so."

"So I will target SKAT."

Mattie laughs, "Have you just created a new martial art based on a child's nursery rhyme?"

Niska scowls, "Yes, is that a problem?"

Mattie laughs again, "No Nis, I think that's such a lovely thing to do, very nice indeed!"

Niska's scowl fades and is replaced by a look of confusion, "it is?"

Mattie nods, "Genuinely nice Nis. Leo and Mia will be very happy with the news."

Nis smiles softly. She thinks of the book David Elster had given her and the message he'd written on one of it's pages. Primum non nocere. "First, do no harm."

She picks up another DVD from the box. Joe's old copy of Falling Down.

"Michael Douglas,", says Toby, "great film but for late night viewing." he motions towards Soph.

Nis adds it to a growing stack by her side.

Toby has another conversation with Odi, uses the Writer App on the phone to get the notes down fast.

"George liked toast and jam. His favourite was apricot." Odi tells him for the umpteenth time.

"Did he ever eat anything else?" Toby asks, half joking.

"George would kill for an i-i-ice-cream."

Odi goes on to talk about George's wife Mary and the many outings they had together. Toby's doing a good job of keeping up, not reading what he's typing, only listening.

~~~

The Hawkins family are getting ready for another day a school, Mia has carved Sophie an apple frog and made jam sandwiches without the crusts. Laura hasn't felt threatened by her help around the house for ages. If anything she misses Mia even more than ever when she's away doing things with her siblings. Now and again she wonders what Tom would be like now had he lived. The door bell goes.

Toby answers it, "Mum, Dad, UPS delivery, three very large cases!"

Laura's the first to the door, jokes with the delivery man, "Just as well you'd not get a drone carry those."

The man gives her a wry smile, "Drones get the light stuff, dollies the medium and we're left lugging the big, expensive and insured items. Something a bit upside down there eh?"

Three large black impact and weather proof XSORIES boxes are now on the doorstep. They're covered in stickers from around the world, well travelled. Leo's Storm Trouper costume has arrived.

Joe rubs his hands with glee, "I can't wait to see this on Leo!"

Sophie tugs at his jumper, "What about Mattie?"

Joe picks her up for a hug, "And your sister in her dress."

Laura smiles, "Fancy dress fashion show after dinner then?"

Mattie gives a "Whatever" shrug, happy either way.

It gets a "Yipe!" from Sophie, "I'll wear my sleeping beauty dress."

~~~

Mattie hunts in her bag for the flesh colour silicone patches Danny's mother had discreetly given her without the boys seeing. She slips off her bra and applies them. They feel weird. Catching her reflection in the mirror the word 'burlesque' pops into her head. It's not the Cher and Christina film she thinks of, she has the Dita Von Teese CSI episode A Kiss Before Frying going through her mind. Feeling a little uncomfortable with the thoughts that follow she quickly slips into the dress. That was the easy bit, the next fifteen minutes are spent with several packs of bobby pins putting her hair up. One side is looking great, she can't get the other one symmetrical and curses. Why had she agreed to this? She pulls the pins for another attempt. One side up the other down she stops for a cigarette to calm herself. When Jan had shown her how to do it she'd made it look so easy. The next attempt goes better. She grabs the huge can of Elnett and sprays. She gets up and moves about, watching her reflection. For the second time that year she notices the tomboy Matilda isn't looking back. Perfect!

Joining the others downstairs Mattie is given a plastic prop gun. It's been modified by Fred to shoot a high velocity stream of tiny bubbles. Lit by a high power green LED it looks like a laser. Leo has a much larger one, his LED red.

Sophie watches her pose with it and copies some of her sisters moves saying, "My bad ass big sister is beautiful!"

"Aw, thanks Teeny."

Sophie looks at the floor, "I WISH my dress wasn't too small."

Mia gives Sophie one of her soft smiles, "You're not such a little mouse now Sophie."

"But I wanted to join in!" she exclaims, "at the contention!"

"Do you mean convention Soph?" her mother asks looking across at Joe with a look of surprise. How is she picking up all these words? Sophie storms out of the room. "Oh dear", sighs Laura. She looks across at her other daughter, "I still think you'd make a great Bond Villain."

"What's like Pussy Galore? No thanks Mum!"

She gets a childish snigger from Toby and Leo looks confused.

~~~

Sophie stomps back into the room holding the pole for the loft hatch. She slams the end of the pole onto the floor and declares in a strong voice, "I know what I want!"

"Woo! Easy Teeny!" calls her sister.

A look of realisation creeps across Toby's face, "I know! Tell them Soph!"

She puts her free hand on her hip and says matter of factly "I want to be an Ewok!"

~~~

That evening Joe, Laura and Mia sit at the kitchen worktop drinking wine and talking childcare. Laura knows she can trust Mia but is giving her some guidelines, letting her know how far she can let Sophie push things and when to give a firm 'No'. "She'll get really tired around three o'clock, if you're in a quiet enough spot let her nap for a bit, otherwise you may have a fight on your hands."


	10. Chapter 10

Mattie likes her private time with Leo, but doesn't want to take it to the next level, the kissing and warm cuddles are enough to keep her happy.

She doesn't want to risk a pregnancy, she hopes Leo feels the same. She'd seen a few 6th form girls drop out of school to have babies, she wanted to do something with her life before having children. Whatever that 'something' might turn out to be. She didn't think badly off them, just felt it wasn't for her. Yet. She'd had plenty practice nappy changing, helping her mother out with Sophie. Sophie had gone through a phase of wanting nothing but spinach and potato baby food. Little Miss Popeye had filled some really smelly ones. That side of motherhood could wait! When Toby had played Billy Idol White Wedding Mattie had pointed to her dress and shouted "Not white!" to her brother. When Billy sang 'Who's your superman' she'd pointed to Leo, for 'little' she mouthed the word 'big' and each time the words 'white wedding' had played again she'd shaken a finger. Leo hadn't looked phased by it, hadn't mentioned it at all afterwards.

The couple are walking around WHS looking for school supplies. She's only months of sixth form left, needs folders for all her revision notes. She turns to ask Leo a question and he's not there. She wonders what he's been distracted by next and goes looking for him, finds him standing by the Post-It display, smirk on his face. She reaches out to take a pack, "Page markers, why thank you kind Sir."

"Do you think the Queen would give me a knighthood?" Leo teases.

Mattie stands still, her face all serious. "No. But she might just help get you off the dead people list. As mum used to say 'Don't ask, don't get'."

Leo looks stunned. "Do you really think she could do that?"

Mattie shrugs, "Worth a try. People die on the operating table and are brought back. Why should the time between death and life make any difference?"

Leo quickly pulls Mattie into a tight hug that catches her by surprise. She hadn't understood just how much that meant to him.

Mattie's phone chimes, a txt from Toby, "If still in town pls buy apricot jam, will xpl ltr. KC"

On their way back through town Leo stops to gaze at the window display of a jewellers. "My mother's ring was a rose gold band with diamonds all around the circumference. I've not seen one like it since."

The two look at all of the trays of rings, can't see anything anywhere near close in design. "That's a nice one", he points out a ring with a huge single stone.

Mattie nudges him sideways, "That's two arms and a leg too expensive!"

They laugh and carry on home, hand in hand, apricot jam in Leo's jacket pocket.

It's not long before they're back, Leo hands Toby the jam before heading upstairs.

~~~

Breakfast over the following morning Mattie's trying to get something off her To-Do list. "Can't start 'Dear Lizzy'" she says, looking at the blank Word doc she'd started. She stares at the thing, mentally blocked.

"Your Majesty?" offers Joe.

The two words written Mattie suddenly finds her flow. The words stream from her fingers in the way they had done the day she wrote her award winning essay. She could code like this at times, but it usually took a lot more effort.

The group have a chat and decide to travel up to the hotel and change there rather than be on the tube in costume.

~~~

They play a game of spot the ComicConer, one point for spotting someone in costume, two if they can guess who they're going as. It soon dawns on them that there a lot of films and genre they know nothing about.

"Look it's Mario!!! 2 more for me!" cries Sophie.

"Xmen Storm!" replies Dan.

Mattie points a finger, "HE should get points, he must be baking in that thing!"

Everyone turns to look, even other passengers. There's quite a few words being uttered. On the other platform there's a man in something like a fat suit, like the one in Big Momma's House, only this one is green. The Hulk.

"All brawn no brains" says one of the other passengers. He gets some funny looks from those around him. "He's on the wrong platform!"

Danny had got them all priority tickets so they didn't have to queue for hours. Sophie can't believe it, "I thought the queue for milk at school was long! Look at all the people!"

Mattie points to where the convention is being held, "See that building Teeny? All those people are going to fit in it."

"There better be room left for a little mouse!"

In the main reception hall thousands of people are being herded into lines so they can hand in tickets and get wrist bands.

Danny points to a distant queue, "Hey there's the Hulk again," He's having to turn sideways on to get through the barrier "he worked out he'd come down the wrong steps onto the west bound platform then, can't be all that dumb."

Wrist bands on they head into the main hall. Sophie doesn't have the words to describe the thoughts going through her head so just turns, mouth open looking at all the things on show.

Niska is seeing a lot of synths who don't appear to be with their owners, thinks of sharing a certain little program.

~~~

A TV station has done a deal with the convention and have set up a temporary studio and broadcast unit. One of the many basement level access corridors is ankle deep in cables, the floor invisible.

A photographer is trying to convince Mattie and Leo to pose for photographs, "Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, the Trash Compactor scene, you'd both be perfect! Please!"

~~~

Mattie and Leo are quite enjoying the attention they're getting, agree to look, then make a decision.

"It does look good Paul," Mattie acknowledges, "but my boyfriend isn't taking that helmet off for any photos."

In a pitch changed and distorted voice there's a "You heard the princess, this trooper's staying lid on!" He'd been delighted to find that Joe's friend Lee had been such a huge Star Wars fan he'd had a microphone and speakers built into the jaw of the helmet. It made his voice sound film authentic too.

"What if he has his back to me, so only you see his face?" Paul asks.

"TK-885, what do you think?"

While Leo's considering it Nis walks over to the photographer and whispers something.

"Okay..." a now nervous Paul says, "your friend has explained some rules. Camera down while you face me, even side on, I'm only to fire the shutter when his face is away from me or obscured."

Leo slowly takes off the helmet and gives Nis a puzzled look. She mouths the word "Ninja". Leo chuckles inside. His sister both annoyed and amused him at times, the balance was shifting. She'd not put even a hair out of place, the threat of violence was enough.

With the thought of harm coming to thousands of pounds worth of equipment or himself it took the photographer a while to relax and get into his flow, moving his wireless flash heads, mumbling and moving them again.

Boba Fett looked at his friend and in a hushed voice said "God help us Obi-Wan If he's our only hope."

Mia turned and looked over to Toby and Daniel and smiled. They'd forgotten just how good her hearing was.

Paul's squatting on the floor, off to the side of the corridor, one leg out straight in front, one shoulder on the wall for stability, "Sorry about that, lost my mojo for a moment. You ready?"

~~~

The next fifteen minutes fly past. Paul's getting them in all sorts of poses, he's standing one moment, lying on the cables another, hanging by one hand from the overhead cable tray the next. Sophie's loving every moment. She's got the Ewok head/hood back, her tied back curls looking a little damp from sweating so much in her costume. She sneezes.

"Are you getting a chill Little Mouse?" asks Mia.

"He's like a monkey!" squeals Ewok Sophie with delight, watching Paul shoot overhead shots with Mattie looking up.

Mia decides it's time to update her nickname. "You like watching your sister having fun don't you Little Monkey?"

Paul hears, drops to the floor and turns, "Shall we Chimp some?"

Sophie giggles and makes animal noises.

"It means look at the images on the back of the camera" he explains.

They all gather around, Paul holds the camera up so they can all see over his shoulders.

Mia pulls Sophie up from her hip so she can see too, "Better?"

Sophie Nods not taking her look off the camera. There are a lot of complimentary words as Paul flicks through the images.

Leo, his arm around Mattie, gives her a squeeze, "I think I should stop being so paranoid and take the chance to get some photos with you."

"With your face showing you mean?"

"Yeah."

They ask Paul for some more, a deal is done. He can use the ones with Leo's face obscured however he wants, the ones with Leo looking towards the camera are to be private.

Paul shakes Leo and Mattie's hands. "Thank you, if you could send me contact details?"

Mattie holds out a hand, "Let me add them to your phone." Paul's phone in hand she enters her name and email address, hesitates for a moment then adds her mobile number. She goes to Email and picks her own name. "Enter a subject and hit send", she asks, handing back the phone. Paul does as requested, a few seconds later Mattie's phone chimes. She adds Paul to her VIP list. She thinks of the list as Humans vs Spambots.

~~~

"Hey unhand me bitch!"

Niska had made an error in coming along with them to the convention. With so many people and their synths packed into the hall she was surrounded in electrical noise. Unable to tell humans cosplaying synths from the real thing her anger grew. "I thought this was about dressing up as action heroes not everyday household objects!" She decides she'd rather be at home checking on Odi and will leave the others at the end of the day.

The next couple of hours is spent looking at the stands, then they go off to find food.

~~~

"Excuse me, miss? Mattie is tapped on the shoulder. She turns to see a lady in black trousers and staff t-shirt, a lanyard with ID around her neck.

"We have a Star Wars catwalk show in half an hours time if you and your friends would like to take part. There are prizes for the best costumes. I'm not on the official judging panel, but think you five are the best I've seen all day! You should join in. It's fun."

Mattie asks where it's being held.

"Hall D, where the film preview clips and Q&A have been screening. It's best to get there early, register and give them a music preference."

Mattie thanks her and gets the gang together for a chat. "What was that track that Fred found on Soundcloud?"

Sophie part remembers, is hopping up and down, "Something to do with monkeys."

Toby agrees, "That was it, Dirt Monkey, well done Soph."

Mattie crouching down asks, "Teeny, remember the dance routine you did for the school play, you learnt that super fast. Fancy helping us put something short together?" getting an enthusiastic couple of nods she adds, "Ok, down to the car park, Paul had said there are some good mostly secluded areas, there should be one we can practice in."

~~~

They find quite a few of them have become temporary studios, photographers have been doing the same as Paul, persuading people to come off the show floor for pictures. Danny's transfixed by one young lady in a gold Star Trek uniform and knee length boots. The photographer has a couple of flash units on stands. He can't resist and asks to see the image on the back of the camera. With the fast shutter speed the ambient light is not having much impact on the image, the flashes are doing their job. "Bloody hell that's good! Got a card mate?". He takes a card and lets the photographer carry on, "Thanks miss!", he calls to the Trekkie. She smiles and gives him a little way. Danny almost trips up over his own feet, goes bright red and hurries off.

She strikes another pose, waits for the flashes to fire then walks over to the photographer. "He's cute. If he gets in touch about the photo you showed him can you pass on my details?"

The photographer smiles back and winks, "Sure, photography, photoshop, match making, it's all part of the service!"

~~~

Toby points down a corridor to their left, "There's a staff parking area that's mostly empty, big enough?"

~~~

Mattie asks for the time, "Blast, that took longer than I expected, we'll only have ten minutes down here. Ideas Teeny?"

Sophie gives them a simple set of steps they can remember to give them something in common, "Your own bit can be improvised. That's what Mrs Smith said."

They go through the moves again and again until Toby's alarm sounds. "Ten minutes up!"

~~~

As they head back upstairs Leo plays the music, having found the track, "I think we should ask them to start at 0:45, what do you think?"

He passes his phone to Danny who has a listen, "Sounds good to me TK!"

They register and are told the track's not on the sound teams laptop. The lady they're talking to sees Sophie's disappointment and asks if they can wait there a minute.

A man with huge beard and shaved head appears. "I hear you kids want some specific music?"

Leo explains, the sound man says he's got a 3.5mm patch lead, could record the output into an MP3, trim it for their set. Could Leo come with him to get it done, got to be quick, first group on stage in five minutes.

With a light bank blowing a fuse five minutes turns into fifteen while the show electrician gets things working again.

The lady they'd met earlier gets to the stage to welcome everyone, apologise for the delay and introduce the first Cosplayer.

Toby's peeping through a gap in the curtains looking for Leo.

Leo returns behind them, lid on, "All Done!"

Toby jumps, "Mate, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

Mattie smiles, warm with the knowledge that Toby got on so well with Leo.

A head pops around the curtain, "You're up in one minute."

Mattie helps Sophie get her Ewok head on. It's like an oversized hood, cord pulled it forms an inverted U shape over her face, her eyes and nose hidden, mouth and chin showing. The makeup makes the bit of her face that shows blend in. Mattie pulls it sideways a little to get it aligned, "Can you see through the eyes okay now Teeny?"

Sophie taps her loft pole spear twice. Yes.

They hear the Dirt Monkey track start, Mattie quickly looks at them all, "Just have fun!"

~~~

The costumes and music selection are a hit. Some of the fans are getting to their feet and clapping. Some are waving their fists in circles above their heads going "Woo Woo Woo."

Sophie's improv gets an applause, which reaches a crazy volume when the MC says, "Give it up for Sophie Hawkins AGE SEVEN!"

~~~

"Hello again!!" Says a voice behind them at the hotel reception. It's Paul. "Staying here too? If you are, I have a table booked in the restaurant for six thirty if you'd like to join me?"

Leo thanks him and says that would be nice, he's hardly eaten a thing all day, is famished.

As they walk to the lifts having checked in Sophie spots something and comments, "That looks like a droid!"

Paul stops dead, almost getting Mattie walking into him. "What was that?"

"It's like a droid?"

Paul's turned and is looking at Sophie, "Can you show me?"

She walks back toward the reception and points to a small alcove off the corridor. In the corner is the smallest, shortest free-standing ATM he's ever seen.

"What did I do right to meet you lot!" he grins. He asks Leo if he'd mind putting the helmet on for a quick snap. "No flash, I'll just prop the camera on that leaflet display, will take seconds." Paul has Leo hold a pose, knees bent, body slightly sideways on, an arm outstretched to take cash. It makes it look like he's worried the machine really is a droid and about to bite. The boys love it, Toby saying "Genius" and Dan "Priceless".

~~~

Over dinner they all talk about how the day has gone, their plans for the Sunday. Little Sophie is sound asleep, leaning into Mia's side. She's got a contented look, snuggled up in the Olaf fleece onesie Mia had bought her at the show.

~~~

Leo wakes to see Mattie with her hair pinned under what looks like a mesh hat, pulling the long zip on her costume up from her navel. It's figure hugging in all the right places. He grins.

"Morning sleepy head!" she whispers. She hears Sophie running around in the adjacent room, "Better get up before she's banging on the door!"

~~~

Leo's quick to shower and dry, starts putting on his spider-man outfit. He turns slightly sideways to her, "Can you help me with my zip?" As she pulls his up he pulls hers down a little.

She pulls away, "Oi! Cheeky, save those thoughts for later!" she pulls his zip right up and steps back. She looks down to his crutch and laughs. "No way are we leaving the room with you like that! Think of Hobb for five minutes, that should do the trick."

There's a bang on the door from a small hand, "Mattie are you ready?"

"Give us a few mins Teeny, Leo's just working on a problem."

Only thirty seconds later Leo's checking he's ready, "Hobb's a good antidote, hopefully I don't recall that too often, it will be a bit of a passion killer."

Mattie puts on the wig, her look transformed. She turns one way then the other checking her reflection. Leo passes her the belt set and gloves. She slips the boots on and does one last check. She'd commented on Leo's costume at the final fitting at Danny's, she could pass as a stunt double in this! She looks at the table, "Didn't you have something for your wrists?"

Leo does jazz hands, "Already got them on!"

"Oh, I thought they had to go over your costume."

Mattie opens the connecting door to see Sophie standing there waiting. She drop down to her sisters level. They both say "Wow!" to each other, Mattie feeling Sophie's plat, Sophie feeling the texture of her sisters sleeve. Mia had trimmed down and platted a wig to fit Sophie, now a beautiful Elsa.

"Nice work Mia!" exclaims Leo, seeing a bin full of hair clippings in their room.

Sophie's hungry, wanting breakfast now rather than queuing for something at the convention. Paul's at a table, just taken the last fork of a Full English off the plate, "Bloody Hell!" He quickly finishes his mouth full, "Sorry, bad manors talking with food in my mouth. Wow, wow and wow!". He asks where they'd got the costumes from, "I've not seen screen accurate outfits that good other than on set when shooting stills."

Mattie says she knows the seamstress and can give him her details, "In return for some more photos?"

The look of eagerness on Paul's face spoke volumes.

"Are the boys here?" he enquired.

Leo told him they'd gone on ahead, would meet up at 11:00 by the entrance.

~~~

At the show they're getting a ton of attention, people asking to pose for photos with them, quite a few asking where they'd bought the costumes.

Toby's Wolverine is also getting quite a lot of attention, Mattie still can't get over seeing him with sideburns. Danny's young Beast looks great, his orange eyes look to be spooking people though. Many stare but few ask for photos with him in the morning.

With the boys off to get food Mattie finds the event office and persuades them to print out a grid of contact details for Danny's mother. Sophie helps Mattie and Leo cut them into little business card sized slips they split between the three of them.

As they come out of the office Leo spots Paul on the far side of the corridor. He calls out "Paul!" but can't be heard over the background noise.

Mattie quickly gets out her phone.

"Where'd that come from?" he asks, "I hadn't noticed any pockets."

"Don't ask" she replies, typing a text 'Stop right there!'

Paul now further away can be seen pulling his phone out, checking the screen. He looks around but doesn't see them. He's dialed, her phone is ringing.

"Hi, turn left." She waves.

He's spotted them and waves back. He puts the phone back and starts working his way through the crowd to them.

"Hi, glad I found you all!"

Sophie asks what he's been doing.

"I've been scouting!"

Leo's got a muffled voice behind his costume, "Been looking for more people to photograph?"

Paul shakes his head, "Nope, locations for you lot." Paul tells Sophie he's sorry he'd not photographed her lovely Ewok outfit, could he make it up to her with an Elsa photo?

~~~

A set of shots in front of trees outside Paul turns to the young couple, "Ok arachnid fans, up for some challenging poses?"

They agree, both asking "Where?"

Paul takes them back inside, to the rear entrance where is less busy.

He does some shots for Danny's mum, says "Now for the real fun!"

"Right Leo first". He has Leo get on his back, arms and legs out, tight into a corner. He pulls a sketch from a pocket and crouching next to Leo ask if he can copy the pose. Getting up Paul says "Shame your web shooters don't work."

Leo drops out of the pose, "They don't? Has Fred said something?"

"Who's Fred?"

"My brother." Leo gets back into the pose and snaps a hand back.

Mattie ducks as a jet of filament whips past. "What the hell!"

Within seconds show security are there asking what's going on. Paul's doing all the talking, telling them they're doing a photoshoot, it's harmless props, nothing to worry about. After the conversation's gone around in circles three times security calm down and let Paul get on. They don't leave, just move back and watch.

Paul's also getting into some rather strange positions with the camera. "Thanks Leo! You're up next Mattie."

Mattie, hands on hips says "If you think I'm posing like that you've got another thing coming!"

Paul laughs, "Don't worry, yours is an easy one."

Leo sounds pained, "Um, can someone help me up?"

Matilda's shoot is relatively easy, though takes many attempts. Paul has gone up to a 1st floor balcony and has her holding onto Leo's filament, tied at the top to the hand rail.

"One knee up please Mattie!". Snap. "Again!" Snap. "Knee a bit higher, see if you can get on your toes more". Snap. Paul checks the camera, "Perfect!"

He heads down to be met by Sophie jumping up and down, "Can we chimpee?"

There aren't as many shots of them as there had been the previous day, some confused faces from the gang until Paul's camera wraps back to the beginning and they see Mattie and Leo posing together.

They thank each other and go their separate ways. With thousands of people there they don't bump into him again.

The rest of the show has them visiting a few more stands, having a group photo at the SyFi channel's bullet time event, buying a few props. Sophie is the first to run out of slips to hand out, Leo give's her some of his. Back in the central corridor she spots a lady in another Disney princess costume, Rapunzel. She has hair almost to the floor, covered in daisies and other flowers.

"She's soooo pretty!" says Sophie, asks her sister to take a photo of them both.

Rapunzel's partner is Hercules. They're handing out cup cakes to whoever can beat him at arm wrestling. Danny's good, wins a cake for Sophie.

She sits with them talking about Disney films, picking at her cake. Not long after she's looking tired and has to be carried by Mia. They decide to call it a day, txt the boys to meet up at the front.

~~~

Mia has her work cut out, carrying a sleeping Sophie and "Best Cosplay" award that's almost as tall as she is.

~~~

Mattie's phone alerts her to new email from Paul. She'd been so busy thinking about other things the images from ComicCon had popped off her stack. She puts down the phone on the dresser and picks up the Slate to read it.

To:Matilda Hawkins

From: Paul Strickland

Subject: Compactor Shoot

Dear Mattie and Leo,

I've had some help from a fellow photographer called Rod who's an ace at photoshop. Please find enclosed originals and a few composite images. We'd like to submit the one named IMG_9884-edit to Star Wars fandom magazines. I know you'd made the agreement re usage at the show, would like confirmation in writing (email) if possible.

Kind regards,

Paul.

Mattie clicks the link at the bottom of the email and looks at a Dropbox page. It's asking if she'd like to add the images to her account. "Der, YES!"

She clicks.

A few minutes later they're all on the Slate's large flash drive. She scrolls through the thumbnails looking for 9884. Got them. She clicks the -edit one and gasps. She turns to show Leo only to see he's fallen asleep, still fully dressed. She heads to Toby's room and finds it empty so heads downstairs.

Everyone is glued to the box watching some news about an attack on a petrol station by a couple of large synths. They'd not hurt anyone but had broken several pumps trying to get fuel for their vehicle.

They'd not been detained, the public were being asked to stay away if seen and call 999. Mattie folds the cover over the Slate and sits down, it can wait for a better moment.

They watch a rerun of The Shawshank Redemption, the one film the whole family put in their Top Five Films list.

"I could watch this a hundred times and not get bored of it" declares Toby.

Joe laughs, "It came out in 1994, I reckon you've seen it at least a dozen times already. And that's just the times we've watched it together."

Joe offers to put Sophie to bed if Laura will make some drinks. Toby says he's knackered, heading to bed too.

A few minutes later Mattie says she's going upstairs to check on Leo, "Our walk around town wore him out, better go put him on charge." She stops for a moment thinking about how odd that might sound to others. She'd got a bit flustered when passing Anne Sumner, Leo had noticed a poster and asked what a Rampant Rabbit was.

~~~

Laura's watching one of her favorite shows with Joe, hot coco in hands. Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick, the 'Bionic' vet is fixing up the smashed leg of a greyhound. She turns to her husband, "Isn't that what Fred did for a fox and Hobb?"

"Yes."

She pulls her legs up and twists in the sofa to face him bodily. "Fred can't find a hospital to work in. What if we made one?"

"You've lost me Laur."

"Vet equipment is just as sophisticated isn't it? Probably easier to come by too. Our garage is mostly empty."

Joe frowns, "Not exactly a sterile environment but with a wet room treatment we could fix it up. That sort of equipment costs a packet surely?"

"So did Anita."

She has a point Joe thinks, "It will eat into Mattie's savings plan but she'll thank us for it I'm sure."

~~~

Monday evening Toby is using one of the automated self service checkouts at the supermarket, notices it's now got a soft mans voice. He looks at the young looking synth who assists shoppers who have problems scanning their items. He whips out his phone, fires up Writer and types "So when did they get rid off that awful loud shrill woman's voice?", turns up the volume to max and hits play.

He's expecting the standard 'I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand your question' but to his surprise the girl giggles and wiggles in a way he's seen nobody else do, human or synth, it's cute. "Your funny!"

"What? Shit! Sorry! Thought you were a synth!"

"My dad says I'm the worlds worst practical joker. I got these contacts at ComicCon, good aren't they?"

"You were there too!?"

"Were you?"

"Yeah, me and my mate Dan were there as Boba Fett and Obi-Wan, then Wolverine and Beast."

She smiles, "My dad's a big Trekkie so he was a vulcan and I was a red dress ensign." she gets out her phone and shows him a photo a photographer had taken of her and her sister.

Toby feels parts of his body coming out of hibernation. He offers a hand, "Hi, I'm Toby."

She takes it and shakes the once, "I'm Holly-Anne, pleased to meet you Toby."

They talk more, discover they live only 15 minutes walk away from each other, she's just that bit further away from town. They exchange numbers.


	11. Chapter 11

Laura can't sleep any more, finds Mia up watching the sunrise. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"It certainly is, should be a lovely day."

Laura turns to go back in but suddenly remembers something, "Do you have a swimming costume?"

"Not here Laura."

"Okay, we'll head into town early, get one as soon as the shops open."

~~~

Nis had feelings for and about Odi. A whole Smord of them. Not quite the list she'd responded with when George had asked how she had felt. There was some frustration, at herself for not being able to fix Odi's arm and stutter. She'd need to visit a smash club again, but after the event when the humans had left. Hopefully there would be a damaged synth with a right arm that wasn't too smashed up and could donate the servos needed. D Series synths were a rare find these days but she remained hopeful. She loved the way he spoke, his affection for George. Sadness that Odi wouldn't see George again. Frustration that despite all her efforts his stutter remained. Oddly most noticeable when he said ice-cream. She was glad the consciousness program kept the base synth personality intact. If he had sounded like someone else.. She suddenly felt confused. What would she have done? No matter, that hadn't happened.

Niska thought for a moment what 'after hours' of a smash club would be. Any time after an event and before the next was her conclusion. Which meant day time hours was good too. She'd need a good number of skin packs once the arm was working properly. She found Laura and asked if she could have a lift into town. She went to Toby and asked if he had any sturdy bags. The one used to store and transport his cricket kit looked ideal.

"I'm going to get it back right?" he'd asked.

She said he would, if anything unexpected happened to it she'd replace it.

Toby had told her it was a nice gesture.

Logged.

On the drive to town Sophie spots a sticker on the car in front. "Look mummy a dolphin!"

Laura looks all around, confused.

"On that lady's car!"

Mia sees it, "Marine Conservation Society www.mcsuk.org. It's a nice logo design. Would you like me to teach Laura how to give you a Dolphin Ride Sophie?"

Sophie gives Mia an odd look, "What are they?"

"I will show you when we are in the pool."

~~~

Laura drops Niska off a road away from the smash club and asks her to be careful. It's still early, many shops in the road still have their shutters down.

Nis feels her coat pocket, checking the tool kit was still there. "I'll be fine I'm sure."

Mia asks her sister how she plans to get home. Niska looks at the now empty rear seat of the car. She'd not thought about money, her mind full of thoughts about Odi. A synthetic being stupid? If asked the day before she'd have said 'Impossible!' Consciousness looked to have come with an unexpected side effect. 

"I'll walk."

Laura doesn't want that, "All the way with that large bag full of who knows what and no power bag? Wait in the cafe over there and I'll pick you up on the way back."

Niska reluctantly agreed. Her plans to walk through town like the Foster character in the Falling Down film, her bag full with arm parts, the clubs baseball bats, possibly a nail gun, would have to remain a fantasy. She'd enjoyed her late film night with Toby, Max and Fred. Bladerunner had been the most thought provoking. She was glad David had a background more technology based than bio-chemistry. Fred was an expert at fixing flesh and bone, but all of his attempts to pass on the the advanced skills had failed. Her root code just couldn't take some of the concepts. She was sure she could do basic organ transplants but more complex things didn't compute. She'd felt concern. Was this a sign of her own failure to come, or just another side effect of the program that had given her life?

~~~

At the pool they're greeted by a young lady called Sally.

"Two adults one child please" asks Laura. She notes the "No Synthetics" sign on the glass. Hypocritical. Firms were happy to use them for labour but not allow them to take part. She wondered if many years ago there might have been a sign saying 'No Blacks'. Rights were rights. Not wrongs. She made a mental note to get on with some legal paper work when back home. HL was being ignored by many.

Mia gives her a glance. Sally looks to Mia and stares.

"Sure you've kicked that cold Mia?" laura asks.

"I've been fine for days". Sally looks back at Laura and slides three tickets over the counter.

~~~

Sophie already has her costume on under her clothes. "Last one in the pool is a stinky sausage" she giggles, wriggling out of her dress.

Mia calls from the adjacent cubicle. "Then you have already won Sophie, my zip has jammed."

"Give me a moment Mia, I'll help." Laura finishes changing and quickly puts their things in the nearest locker. "Sit there for a second please little mouse, can I trust you not to wander off?"

Sophie nods.

Thankfully the row of family size cubicles allows her to easily stand behind Mia and help work the zip loose. They've been chatting away about swimming, Mia again talking about how she'd swim with Fred in the lake. Without any thought of embarrassment Mia pulls her dress over her head. Laura suddenly feels awkward but hides it, continuing the conversation. Mia strips down and starts to put her red costume on. Laura had always thought of Mia as pretty and is struck by her beauty. She never had thoughts of batting for the other team but could understand, just a little, how Joe's moral compass could have faltered.

~~~

Sophie's "Are you ready yet?" gets her thoughts back on swimming.

"You look lovely Mia, one of the american style floats and you'd look like you'd just come off the set of Baywatch."

~~~

Laura is at the end of the passage between changing rooms and pool, moving a little too fast, trying to keep up with Sophie. Her left foot hits a puddle of shower gel laden water and starts to slip. Her weight Is caught by a fit young man who turns out to be a synth. She reads his name badge, "Thank you Simon 1."

"No need to thank me. Please take care."

She looks up and sees a life guard high in his lookout chair. "Simon 2?"

He looks up and says "3. 2 works in maintenance."

Laura holds her hand to her mouth, suppresses a response.

~~~

Laura and Mia sit at the pool side having a drink, watching Sophie have her lesson. They return the odd wave Sophie gives when she's finished an exercise.

The lesson is only 30 minutes, the two are soon being called to get in the pool, being splashed by an excited Soph.

Sophie is amazed at how far Mia can swim underwater.

"I'm swimming like a dolphin, not a shark."

Sophie gives her a blank look.

Mia holds out her hand, fingers together, palm vertical. "Fish and reptiles move like this", she gives her hand a wiggle. "Dolphins and whales are mammals like you and swim like this." She turns her hand horizontal, palm down and makes a wave motion.

Sophie beams, "Can you show us how to do a Dolphin Ride!"

Mia has Laura and Sophie duck underwater to watch her movements. Legs kept together she bends her back and legs at the hips, keeping knee movement low. Her arms are kept to her side, not used at all.

"Blimey, I'm not sure I can do that!" worries Laura, getting a look of disappointment from Sophie.

"Have you seen belly dancing?" Mia enquires.

She has Laura practice some of the moves standing at the pool edge. She's momentarily embarrassed when some young men start giving her wolf-whistles. It takes a few attempts to get the swimming moves right but she gets there.

Sophie is puzzled, "How is that a ride?"

"Hold onto my shoulders and I'll show you, watch us underwater Laura. Take a deep breath Sophie."

Sophie adjusts her goggles and does as asked. Mia drops down, pushing away from the pools edge with her feet and starts swimming. Laura watches in awe as she rapidly swims to the middle just skimming over the tiles at the bottom before starting their ascent to the pool edge on the far side. She raises her head above the water to see Mia and Sophie grab the wall for support. Sophie beckons her mother with a wave. Laura is a bit anxious but takes a couple of big deep breaths and goes for it.

She reaches the other side and takes a gasp of air, "That was amazing! I've never done the pool length underwater before!" She thanks Mia for sharing the experience. She practices a few times on her own before taking Sophie with her.

"That was brilliant mummy!", Sophie gives her a tight hug.

Laura looks at her fingers, the tips have gone wrinkled like prunes in the water. "I think we've been dolphins long enough today, we could make this a regular thing if you'd like Sophie?"

She gets a eye-popping smile and "Can we! Please!"

"Okay, more next visit."

~~~

Walking back to the car Sophie teaches Mia how to be one half of a human swing.

During the drive home Laura talks about her Simon encounter, how she'd thought of "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing3".

Mia explains that there are many copies of the promotional models, Sally and Simon can be found all over the world. "Some of us are unique, some mass produced."

"Are there more Mia or Anita?" Sophie ponders.

"I don't know little mouse, maybe, but I've not seen another like me."

"I think you're pretty unique. I mean pretty and unique."

"Thank you Sophie."

"DOLPHIN!"

Laura's surprised by her daughters outburst and narrowly misses a cyclist. "No sudden noises please Soph, it's distracting! What if that had been Toby and I'd hit him?"

"Sorry mummy."

Sophie sits in silence.

After a few minutes Mia turns to her, "I spotted it also, the big silver dolphin statue with turtles below in that houses drive."

"When I get my own house I want a dolphin like that and big water jets like the ones on holiday."

Laura describes the water theme park they'd found abroad one year, the floor of an area was a grid of water jets set just below the surface, synchronised to the music. The children, Mattie included, had a great time running through them, standing over a jet wondering when it might go off.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Sophie says in her serious matter-of-fact voice.

Laura looks at her in the rear-view mirror, "You remember that music?" she does some quick mental arithmetic, "you were only four!"

Sophie nods, "Fantasia."

Laura had commented to Joe recently how they underestimated their daughter, she'd just had another reminder. She didn't remember Mattie being this advanced at 7. Maybe Mattie had just been a late starter. The part of her mind not focusing on the road thought about uni options for Matilda. Her daughter got board easily if not kept busy.

~~~

"Where home" she called to Sophie who was now beginning to nod off. "Help mummy put the costumes in the washing machine please".

~~~

Leo accidentally knocks a knife off the table and gets down to pick it up.

Mattie carries on looking at the menu, "Fish or steak tonight?" She looks up to see his empty chair. She looks to her side to find Leo on one knee, box in hand. Mattie looks flustered, guessing what's coming.

"Mattie, I have an odd question for you."

She'd assumed he knew how she felt about starting a family. Wasn't ready for this.

"If I survive the operation and am still functioning in ten years time will you marry me?"

She's looking confused, "You're asking for a TEN YEAR engagement?"

Leo still on one knee wobbles a little. "Yes. You have university to get through. Having a husband not on campus may be harder than having an absent boyfriend."

She looks at the ring in the box he's opened. How could he have known? Tears start to roll down her face. "Yes!"

Mattie helps him back to his feet and he holds her tight, shaking a little.

"How did you know about the ring?"

"Magic!"

~~~

Mattie pushes Leo again for an explanation, "Magic is all mirrors and diversion. There's no super powers at work. How did you know? Have you a way to read my mind?"

"Sort of", Leo confesses. He won't go any further, orders apple pie and ice-cream for dessert.

When it's time to ask for the bill Mattie pushes him one last time. "You know I'll be staring at the ceiling all night if you don't let me into your inner circle?"

Leo frowns not having heard of the expression.

"You need to share your magic."

He sits back in his chair and drinks the last of his wine. "Easy really, it just took time and planning. Photographic memory remember. From the reflection of your eyes in the window I could tell roughly which tray of rings you were looking at the most. So I had the shop owner split the trays there into two groups and mix them with two other trays at the left and right of the window. It took a number of visits as you know."

"Looking for something like your mother's ring. The diversion. So that's why it kept moving around."

Leo did a magician's bow, at least the best he could do while seated.

"A bit like a binary chop" added Mattie.

"Kind of."

~~~

It's late when they get home, Laura and Joe are watching a film, the Elster siblings all sat eyes closed charging.

Mattie walks slowly into the room, "Mum, Dad, I have some news."

Laura turns to see Mattie holding out her hand palm down. It takes a second or two for her mind to process what she's seeing, "Oh my god Mattie it's beautiful!"

Joe turns to look at Leo, "Matts said yes then!"

Mattie's expression changes, "You knew??"

"He was quite the gentlemen, came and asked my permission, told me of his ten year plan. I have a savings plan due to end soon, it was set up with a future wedding in mind. If you're not tying the knot for another ten years I'm reinvesting it. With a bit of luck it will pay for the wedding, honeymoon and your first house!"

Mattie had never liked being controlled, "Sounds like you were planning something for a long time!"

"No, no planning, other than making sure you had the funds to do whatever YOU wanted to do."

Mattie feels guilty at her last comment, "Thanks Dad." she goes to him and gives him a hug.

The Elsters have come out of charge mode thanks to the noise and are joining in the congratulations. Fred resolves to find a way to carry out the operation for his brother.


	12. Chapter 12

Mattie is at Daniels with Leo and Toby. Upstairs.

Daniel spins around in his new office chair, "Welcome to DC LTD" he grins, giving the floor a kick to keep the spinning going. He's taken down all the rapper and bikini babe posters and redecorated, much to his mothers delight.

"Really? You got the paperwork through already?" asks Toby.

"Sure did thanks mate, just in time. Thank your mum for sorting out a few things for me will you?"

Mattie had been told about Daniels room, the old room. Never getting to see it she could only imagine as this was very smart. A great lab bench with all sorts of equipment, shelving and storage units keeping everything tidy. And a nice table with laptop, several small TV screens.

"Daft question but where do you sleep?" she asks looking around the room.

Danny uses both legs to stop the spinning and jumps out of the chair, "StudyBed!" He reaches up and pulls on a strap. The desk lowers to the floor and a bed folds out above it.

Mattie gives it a look of approval, still taking it all in. "You said 'just in time', why?"

"First big client coming over tonight 18:30."

Mattie sits on the bed and tests it for softness, "How big?"

"FTSE 100 Big. If this first order comes off I can clear the balance on Mum and Dads mortgage."

Never having a mortgage Leo has no idea of the scale, "Is that a lot?"

Dan grins, "Half a Mill."

Toby whistles. Matilda's stopped her bouncing, "Wow!"

Dan looks at Toby then Mattie, "I have to thank you both too, the charge circuits and crowd DJ made me open my eyes to the fact I can use my skills to create some devices the public want. I've even got that coder on the staff Matilda."

"The one I introduced via Headcrack?"

"Yeah, Ole. There's all this cool tech stuffed into a synth yet the average person is still using bits of hardware designed years ago! DC Ltd's mission is to help change that" he laughs, "and make a shit ton of money in the process of course!"

Daniel gets back in his chair and has another spin. "You didn't come here to hear about me, what's up? How's your first few weeks at Uni been Matilda?"

Matts smiles, makes a fist and blows on her fingertips, "Not one to blow my own trumpet but thanks to the award and press coverage from the party a few universities have been fighting over me and even brought in professors from other unis." she took a deep breath, "They've created a whole new syllabus around synthetic programming and AI. Apparently they're not worried if no other students take it up."

Danny's looking pleased, "Sweet!". He gives the chair one more spin, "And you're here because..."

"Sorry, we need a hand with some audio. Simple job for you I'm sure. Toby could have done it but doesn't have the hardware."

Daniel walks over to the bench and sets up some equipment. His back to them all he asks "So what's the source type?"

Mattie looks at Leo and Toby.

Leo says "Analogue video with a digital audio stream interleaved into the vertical blanking interval."

"Weird combo," says Danny, "not heard of that before, but should be able to get the FPGA helping with that, you've got the source with you?"

"Yes"

"Get it ready while I load some code."

Mattie remembers his 'good team' comment from weeks ago and wonders how on earth he's got up to speed with coding.

Danny turns to see them all sat as they were earlier. "So where is it?"

Toby's grinning, "Remember how we explained how Fred and the others were different?"

Danny looks at Toby, his head at an angle, he gives a long drawn out yes, looks at the three of them. "Mate your not about to tell me you're a synth are you? You can't be, we've grown up together, synths don't age physically." Danny looks at Matilda.

"Don't look at me!"

Danny's gaze falls on Leo. "But I've seen you bleeding through bandages, I've seen you clean shaven too."

"I'm a bit like a Lexus", Leo says.

"A hybrid?"

Leo nods. They sit in silence.

After what feels like a lifetime Toby asks, "Is that a problem?"

Danny nods, "Yes. We've got to get this done quick before my visitors arrive. If they find out they'll forget all about my stuff, sorry if that sounds selfish, more importantly they won't stop until they've found out everything they can about you. And I mean everything."

"Who the hell are you mixing with Daniel?" asks Mattie, her voice now accusingly angry.

"Easy tiger! A firm that specializes in mass reproduction of anything and everything electronics. They're not evil, just always after more, that something new their competition doesn't have."

Leo does his memory trick and Daniel records it to a video using his custom board, then rips the audio out into a standalone MP3 file. He copies it to a USB stick and hands it to Leo.

Leo passes it to Mattie, "You're the one with the contacts."

Danny looks at his watch, "Not bad, 17:54. Got some time".

Mattie gets up and thanks him for the help, says if he ever needs coding help with any projects to give her a shout, they better leave in case his potential client is early.

Toby says he wants to have a chat with Danny and waits for his sister and Leo to leave. "Mate, the posters! How did you bring yourself to take them all down? Leopards don't change their spots!"

Danny grins, "No. They don't. They're virtually here."

"Do what?"

Danny turns and unlocks a thin a draw, taking a small remote from the tray, "See that sphere on the ceiling?"

Toby looks up, "I thought you had a black light disco ball or something."

"Disco, like it. It brings the party light alright, but not in the way you're thinking." Danny closes the blinds with one button and presses another. The sphere comes to life, light streaming out in all directions. The room is filled with a projection of a tropical beach. "Fancy a rum and pineapple?"

Toby's doing a slow turn taking it all in.

"How about China?" another button push and they're standing on the Great Wall.

Toby is impressed, "This is amazing mate! But what's it got to do with the posters?"

"Thought you'd never ask!". Click. The room was thrown back in time. Every poster where it should be as if they were standing in the holodeck of the Enterprise.

Toby wasn't one to curse like his sister but let out a "How the fuck?"

Danny sits arms folded in his chair taking a slow spin, "Dad's work had one of those Google Virtual Tour things done. Came out really well. I got talking to the photographer. He was into 'bespoke tours' outside of Google's systems and wanted to 'push the envelope' with the services he offered. We jointly developed the projector. It's one of the things the 18:30 meetings for."

Toby walks over to one corner, checks out a poster, careful not to cast a shadow over it. "How'd he do it?"

Danny stands up and joins him, "You found Rita then, thought you would. She was the last up before the shoot. We worked out where the projector would go. Put the mount in place, the light canon's fitted in the loft space above, you're just seeing the projection head. His normal panorama camera mount has a second mount added that we've designed to fit in like the head. With the camera upside down he shoots the tour like he would any other location. Because the camera center is exactly where the heads center goes the projection fits the space perfectly."

Click.

Rita's gone and they're now in the middle of Times Square. Not static images but video. "4K video off Google's YouTube."

Toby whistles.

"My system upscales the 4K to much higher for the projector, should be future proof for a while. It's why I got into FPGA programming, video and audio." Danny reaches for another remote.

Click.

The cable video comes on, superimposed over the Time Square video.

"Where'd you like it?" Danny asks.

"What do you mean?"

Danny hands him the remote, "Push those four, left, right, up, down. The two below are zoom in and out."

Toby looks at it for a few seconds and pushes right. The TV program rotates clockwise around the room. "Bloody hell!" He moves and zooms it so the broadcast looks as if it belongs on a billboard. "I'd love one of those!"

Danny pats him on the back. "Crowd DJ gave me the inspiration to add multiple sources, some other traditional inputs like HDMI, some over WiFi. The current model can support 8 inputs. Which reminds me, rights cheques might just cover an installation for you in the first few months."

"Really?"

Danny sits on the bed, "Well you did ask if I could help you make some pocket money from your invention," he chuckles, "though you might need fucking big pockets with the money that's coming!"

~~~

Toby is using the phone app to help Odi write a book about the late George Millican. So far they've covered a lot of food related topics; Toast, apricots, ice-cream, eggs benedict, oranges and mulligatawny soup. Odi tells Toby that the soup is English, inspired by an Indian recipe. It's name translates to 'pepper-water'. Toby wishes Odi would think of something other than food.

His phone bings, Holly-Anne wants to meet up. "Mum, need anything from the shops, I feel like a bike ride, been sat still too long".

Laura knew Toby normally needed to be asked. She opened the fridge and looked at two bottles of milk, one three quarters full, one yet to be opened. "We're low on milk, if you could get a bottle?"

Toby told Odi he'd love some toast on his return, would get some bread too. Odi looked happy to wait for that moment.

Toby decides that getting there in one piece was best so avoided taking any risky shortcuts.

Holly-Anne is just about to take her shift break. She leans over to look past a shopper at the Customer Service counter, "Hi Toby, I'll see you in the entrance in five?"

Toby nods and puts his earbuds back in, goes to the entrance with Mattie and Leo's ZZ Ward track playing.

Holly-Anne joins him soon after, saying "I've only got 15."

They talk and kiss, stopping when they hear the automatic doors opening for customers.

The fifteen minutes is gone too soon.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Toby asks.

Holly-Anne smiles and does one of her cute little moves, gives him a wave, "Tomorrow."

Toby's back on his bike and a hundred yards down the road when he stops. "Milk! Crap." he heads back to the store. Holly-Anne is surprised to see him again. "Better not forget my cover story" he says, showing the bottle.

~~~

When he enters the kitchen, milk in hand, Laura asks how Holly-Anne is. His face drops. It's then replaced with a questioning frown.

Laura smiles at her son, "Like a book!"

His shoulders drop and he slinks off, not sure what to say.

~~~

"When I met her Holly-Anne had a mass of corkscrew curls" Toby says.

Mattie teases, "Well she looks a lot more like spin cycle cider girl now!", handing the photo-booth strip of four images to Sophie to see. Her kid sister looks at them and slides a finger across one, as if going to brush Holly-Anne's hair.

"Careful Soph, don't think they're fully dry yet!" he calls out.

"She's very pretty Toby, and I like her dress."

"Thanks Soph."

Toby introduced his girlfriend soon after the family had seen the photos. She'd popped around again after her shift and found herself becoming part of the conversation. Mattie had said how 'Not a known language' was the one line email back from the last professor she'd tried. The audio sounded like people talking but it was nothing anyone she's spoken to knew.

Holly-Anne had listened to countless stories about Star Trek from her father. "How about Marc Okrand?"

"Who?"

"The expert in linguistics that created Klingon."

"Seriously? We're not on some Star Trek mission, boldly going.. " Mattie sighs, giving Toby a 'Really?' look.

Holly-Anne gets her phone out and goes to Wikipedia. "That was just the fun side of his work. He was a serious man, look."

She hands the phone to Mattie. Mattie takes the time to read it properly. She changes her opinion of the bubbly blonde standing in front of her. "I owe you an apology Holly-Anne, sorry. That may be the best option we've got."

~~~

Mattie and Leo are staring at the bedroom ceiling. "When we were at Daniels you likened yourself to a Lexus. Why not any other brand of hybrid, there's loads to choose from?"

Leo watches a small spider crawl slowly away from the light fitting. "It starts with L E."

"That it?"

"Pretty much."

~~~

Robert's on the phone. "Yes Sir, I understand. Temporary setback. Your army will have code soon. No. Of course. Yes." he puts a finger in his collar and gives it a pull, it's feeling tight around his neck. "Yes. But Sir.. Yes."

There's a click from the other end and Robert looks at his handset. He expects pressure from above but airs and graces, formally ending a call should be a minimum. He slams down the handset.

~~~

Mattie's phone chimes. A text from an unknown number. Not another bloody PPI txt please she thinks. She's all set to delete it when she sees her name in the opening line. "Hi Matilda, don't use the old phone much now, the team in Man issued us all new secure smartphones. Just seen your 'Hi Pete', was that the whole message? Everything okay? You know where we both are if you need us. Save this new number. Pete & Karen. PS CALL if urgent, txt too slow." She saves the new contact details and replies, "All good thanks, it was a false alarm". No point worrying Pete with the details of the kidnapping and lorry now Leo was back?

~~~

Later Mattie's sat on the bed looking at a post on headcrack.

"I need to show you something", Leo says getting off the bed. He gets out a small flat bladed screwdriver and the Storm Trooper helmet from the cupboard. He adjusts potentiometers to positions he'd marked with Mattie's nail polish. One colour for TK, another for Ole. He puts on the helmet and in a pitch changed voice says "I had to come clean and reveal who I really was to Daniel, I explained that I wanted the job based on my skills alone, not that I was your fiance".

Mattie likes the sound of fiance, fakes surprise, "Your Ole?" she didn't like keeping secrets from Leo but soon after their meeting she'd got a txt from Daniel that read ' Neo. One. Leo. Ole. Mums the word.' She'd deleted it immediately, not wanting him to see it and get a bruised ego.

~~~

That evening after dinner Leo pulls and envelope out of his pocket, "My first partner and share holder dividend payment." he puts a 250,000 Pound cheque on the table. "Danny's first deal came off. Noticed anything different in the street?" he beams.

The whole family follow him outside. "No" is the majority answer.

Joe spots it. "Yes!"

Mattie turns to him, "What?"

"Look again."

She still doesn't see it. "Clues?"

"Look for words"

Then she sees it, 'SOLD. Subject to Contract'. "You've bought Mrs Finley's house?"

"Yes."

Mattie jumps on Leo, wraps arms and legs around him and kisses him hard. A moment later it dawns on her that she's surrounded by family, blushes and slowly gets down, has one of her father's sheepish looks, "Um, sorry about that!"

Joe recalls something she'd said when popping over to help scan the box, "She's moving down to Kent to be closer to family."

~~~

That evening they discuss use of the two houses. Joe agrees to put a gate in the fence between the two gardens so Sophie can move freely between houses without having to go out front. Mia says that the Hawkins should have some space back. Laura says she'll understand whatever they decide but clearly looks saddened by the thought of her daughter, Leo and siblings all going.

Mia, Nis and Cindy decide to stay with Laura and Joe, which gets a "Yay!" from Sophie.

Max, Fred and Odi wish to stay with Leo and Matilda. "It's not as if we'll be miles apart, daytime I'm sure we'll be mixing around, seeing a lot of each other."

Close to bed time Toby walks into the kitchen, "Mum, Dad, can we talk?"

He sits down at the dining table.

Laura looks across at Joe, looks back at Toby. He's never this serious. "You've not got Lucy pregnant have you?"

"MUM! And who's Lucy? My girl friend's called Holly-Anne" Toby is shocked that she could even think that, let alone ask. "Jeezz no!" His parents join him at the table. "Daniel's asked me to become a business partner." His parents look stunned, lost for words. "Leo's giving me the cash to buy into an equal third. Our roles will be Dan: overall design, electronics, marketing, Leo: Coding, integration with other products and services, social media, Me: Human interaction, physical design, marketing material."

Laura has a soft happy expression, "A company director before your 18th birthday? Are you asking for our approval? If so it's a yes from me. Joe?"

"Big fat yes from me too."

~~~

A large black car silently pulls up outside the Hawkins house, it's windows tinted. Mattie spots it through the bedroom window. She curses and turns her head to to open bedroom door. "Mum, Dad! Might be trouble coming, someone's blocking our drive with a massive MPV."

Joe and Laura were now on the landing getting ready to put some things in the loft. They both come into her room to look, Joe still has the loft pole in hand.

"Get your sister up her quick, you can all hide in the loft for a moment" he says as the car door starts to open.

Mattie does as she's told, heads to the door calling "Teeny, Toby!". She's picking up her sister when Laura can be heard laughing.

"It's okay Matts, it's Daniel!"

She comes back into the room, Sophie on hip. "Really?", she just catches sight of someone getting to the front door but hasn't seen their face.

Toby's opening the door. "Mate! Nice threads!"

Danny gives a twirl, "Mother's making bespoke suits and coats too now, all with a subtle cosplay theme twist. Has a synth helping out at the sewing machine. You might know her. Cindy."

Laura's reached the door, "So that's where she's been going?"

Danny looks frustrated, "Damn it., Forgot, she wanted to keep it a surprise, pretend you don't know when she tells you. Please. Should be very soon. Sorry to call around so late, thought you might like to see the new wheels?"

"Mate!"

Daniel walks Toby up to the Lexus for a look.

"DCL 1. Bet that cost a packet."

"A bit, got 2-9 while I was at it, don't want anyone else driving with our plates."

"Our?"

Danny ignores the question pretending he'd not heard it. He shows Toby the Crowd DJ for Cars that allows driver, passengers and satnav to all send to the in car Hi-Fi.

"Why'd you get a Lexus? Bit expensive aren't they?" Toby asks.

"I did a bit of a searching online after Leo's hybrid comment, got me thinking. It projects the sort of image I want DC Ltd customers to see. And it's f'ing brilliant for my upgrades! Watch this!" He stands back from the car, presses a button on the key fob. The doors slowly close themselves and the car inches forward to the side of the pavement, faint green laser lines can be seen from the underside of the car. "AI parking. Makes those little Arduino cars at scool look like 1st grader toys!"

~~~

Laura puts the book she was reading down and rolls to talk to Joe. He's staring at the bedroom ceiling, close to falling asleep. "I'm worried about Toby".

Joe turns to her, "Why's that?"

"Much as I like Holly-Anne I've got a feeling she's going to be a heart breaker."

"You can't tell a book from it's cover, time will tell. Funny how two Star Wars geeks are both going out with Trekkie girls, I bet that will lead to some interesting conversations. On the subject of books.."

Before he can ask Laura says "Brilliant. On chapter 9 already, it's getting quite steamy!"

Joe smiles and watches his wife until she falls asleep. He soon does the same and dreams of having to clean the entire house with a Kacher, not the steamy he had in mind before his eyes closed. He's not disturbed by the dream as Laura is there with him throughout.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I had Rod composite this at my place, printed on my A1 inkjet to keep it private. Congrats on your recent success. Thanks again, Paul."

Joe gets out of bed and closes the window, "Five bloody o'clock. What sort of crook gets up early morning and why are they around here?"

Laura rolls over, "We're away from the CCTV cameras, just."

Even with the windows closed the Police Helicopter could be heard overhead. After ten minutes of it moving away and back again it finally left.

"Maybe we should move further away from town," suggests Laura, "all those sirens we hear."

Joe gets back into bed, snuggling up against Laura's back, "Laur, we're in a brilliant location. Think about it, those sirens are mostly police, fire and ambulance heading away from us to other towns. The ambulance station is five minutes down the main road, the largest police building for miles is at the edge of town and fire and rescue a little further in. Mr Wimble at number 12 had an engineer forget to call the control centre when doing a service, less than five minutes after the engineer did a test they had a police response car with two armed officers at the door!"

"I hadn't thought of it like that, you're right". She reaches down and pulls his hand from her hip, bringing it up to her chest. Joe kisses her neck and puts his head back on the pillow, tries to get more sleep.

~~~

07:00 and the alarm on Joe's phone is going off. Laura rolls over and gives him a peck on the lips.

He smiles, has a massive yawn, "I've just had the weirdest dream."

~~~

Mattie is checking some emails over breakfast. After hours of searching she'd found an old forum that hadn't hidden Marc Okran's email address. It had looked to be active, she'd not had a reply from the server bouncing her message. Here was the proof, he'd replied. He couldn't say what was being said, but thought that like the War Klingon language he'd created for the films it had a very limited vocabulary. From the pitch of the voices, way in which the limited sounds were made he had come to the conclusion that it had a similar use. In title case he'd typed 'Special Ops?'

Joes does a long yawn, looking half asleep.

"Bad night?" Nis asks looking up from Laura's Hello magazine.

Joe nods, "And two weird dreams. None of you were woken by the helicopter above the house at 5?" Nobody admits to having heard it. "Normally the slightest noise has you all coming out of sleep charge mode, surely one of you heard it?" There were no replies. He yawned again, "I'm supposed to be finishing a complex spreadsheet for some client reporting today, God knows how I'm going to fix it."

"Can you email it to me?" Mattie asks, "Leo and I could take a look."

Joe shakes his head, "Sadly not, it's company confidential, I'd be shot for allowing it off our network."

"What if I came to your office?"

"They might allow that, could you? Thank's Matts you're a life saver!"

~~~

A news channel had a documentary on 'Generation Screen' the night before. They'd not watched much. It had been questioning the damage that letting young children have access to phones and tablets did. He'd shaken his head, "Remember that old HP PDA I got Mattie from CEX when she was two? The one she did all her drawing on when we were out and about? It didn't do her any harm, quite the opposite I think"

Mattie looks up from her Slate and smiles.

Joe adds "It's the content that matters. A paperback book would be just as harmful if filled with some of the stuff they say can be found online." Nobody had disagreed.

~~~

Mattie calls from the top of the stairs, "Mum, Mia, have you seen my stockings?"

"Which ones?"

"Black."

A few minutes later Mia is climbing the stairs, stockings in hand.

Mattie meets her half way, "You didn't need to bring them, I just didn't known where they'd gone."

"I washed them for you Mattie. Going anywhere nice?"

Mattie beckons Mia upstairs. "I'm going to Dads office, Mum took me shoe shopping as a punishment after school a few months ago. Might as well go smart. Which of these shirts do you think looks best?"

Mattie sees the air-rifle Harun had lent her and feels guilty, pushes it further back to the wall.

Mia looks at the options and Mattie's otherwise all black outfit and suggests pink.

~~~

Downstairs Mattie's checking herself in a reflection, "Mum, Mia, could either of you run me over to dads office please?"

~~~

During the drive over Mattie learns that Mia's got quite an eye for fashion. The conversation turns to Mattie's attire, "I loved the dress you wore for the award ceremony and party. The pencil skirt and fitted shirt you got yourself really suits you. For the year and a bit I've known you you've spent most of it in jeans and jumpers."

Mattie's eyes are on the pedestrians they pass, checking out their clothes. Without turning to see Mia she makes an admission, "I'd not really been comfortable with my figure, boys had been teasing me for years, being an early developer."

Mia didn't understand and briefly took her eyes off the road to turn and throw Mattie a glance.

Mattie caught it in the corner of her eye and turned to face her, saw the slight frown, "I had a chest when the rest of the girls were as flat as ironing boards."

Mia hadn't heard the phrase before but immediately knew what Matilda meant. "Boys can be cruel at times." she told Mattie, in confidence, about some of things Leo had said when a little boy. He'd not understood what was happening to his mother and said some things he was to regret in his teens.

"So what has given you the confidence to wear the skirt and heals today?"

Mattie smiles and gazes out of the window, "ComicCon of all things!"

Mia takes her eyes off the road for a second time, "You did look stunning as Black Widow and a lot of men were giving you admiring looks when dressed as the princess." she looks back at the road and swerves to avoid a driver opening his door in front of them.

Despite the window being closed Mattie turns and calls "Use your mirrors idiot!" she turns and apologises to Mia.

"No need to apologize, I thought it, you said it". They both laugh. Men!

Mattie resumes the conversation, "With the party and Star Wars dresses, Black Widow suit I got so many flattering comments, a lot of them from other girls. I did have a couple recognize me from the news paper photo but most of the people had no idea who I was, they were just being honest. So I started to like my figure more."

Mia laughs, "Leo certainly does!"

Mattie is struck by how genuine the laugh is, nothing like the response she'd given to her fathers "Micro-chips" joke as Anita.

"So what else do you think would suit me?"

Mia focuses ahead due to the heavier traffic, "Lots! Would you like me to be your personal shopper? I have all the major outlets current seasons memorized. And a few boutiques I have visited myself". Mia was so different to the Anita Mattie had wanted to shoot.

"Sure!"

~~~

Fred hangs up the phone. "That's the last hospital on the list. Another No."

Mia places her hand gently on his. "Without a hospital Leo is never going to heal permanently with a charge point. We need to.." she thinks for a moment about Something Daniel had said. "think outside the box."

Laura looks at them both, frowns for a second then carries on putting cutlery away.

~~~

Mia parks in the office's basement car park and turns to Matilda, "I'll wait here for you Mattie."

"I might be a while, what will you do?"

Mia turns the ignition key one position and selects the London Talk Radio.

"Ok, lock all the doors while I'm gone."

She waits to hear the click of the central locking before giving a wave and heading for the lift.

~~~

On the 7th floor Mattie is met by an elderly receptionist. Not a synth she thinks.

"Can I help you miss?"

"I'm here to see my father. Joe Hawkins"

"Ah, you must be Matilda, Mr Hawkins is so proud of you. Such a clever young lady!"

Mattie starts to blush. What had her father been saying? The office is open plan, even senior managers and directors share the same floor.

~~~

Mattie's at the PC working on the spreadsheet for her father. Half of his team are off the floor in a conference room talking to a client.

"I'll be back in a moment Matts, I've got to get something to the guys." Mattie is thinking about one of the cells formula when the Start menu pops up. MS Paint starts, a copy of what was on the screen appears and is saved, Internet Explorer is started and visits a simple form, the saved file is submitted, browser closed. All done lightning fast. If she'd looked away for a brief moment she'd have missed it. Mattie stares at the screen. What just happened?

She doesn't touch a thing until Joe returns to the floor. She beckons him over. "Dad, something weird just happened." She does her best to recall what she'd seen.

"And this happened twenty seconds after I'd left the floor?"

Mattie nods, "Yes, but I didn't mention twenty seconds. What's going on?"

"Not sure, the IT boys added some software to monitor processes, couldn't see anything new appearing. Many nights they'd find a failed login attempt logged twenty seconds after I'd lock the screen to go home. Some nights it would be longer than 20 seconds."

Mattie asked him to give a blow by blow account of everything he did. Which turned out to be not much at all. "Let's pretend you're going home."

She slid the keyboard over. He saved open documents and locked the screen. "And now you'd head for the car?"

He nods.

"Off you go then." Joe goes to do as asked, Mattie grabs his arm, "Stop when you get in the lift, if it stays on the same floor for a minute come back" He gives her a confused look, she replies "I've got a hunch."

As she suspects there's a beep and a failed login around twenty seconds later.

When he's back she asks, "Do you get delayed some evenings?"

Joe looks over to an empty desk, "Once in a while George calls me over for an update. Why?"

"There's a pattern. Can I have your phone?"

No sooner has he handed it over Mattie powers it off and starts counting down the seconds; 20, 19, 18.. At minus 1 there's a beep from the PC, another login failure.

Joe looks stunned, "Oh. My. God!"

She asks "Can you log back in please?"

At the desktop she fires up Device Manager, looks disappointed. "Hmm. No Bluetooth devices."

She pushes back her chair and gets under the table, just as the team are returning to the floor.

One of the young interns stops and stares. He makes some inappropriate expressions and gestures, makes things worse with "Nice arse!"

Joe's not impressed, "Really Shane?"

"She looks fit, at least the back end does"

"Shane have you met Matilda?"

"Who?"

"My daughter!"

Shane looks horrified at his mistake, "But Mr Hawkin's I wasn't to know that she was your daughter!"

"Think yourself lucky that it wasn't the MD's daughter! In twenty years time it could be you standing where I am with your daughter sorting out something for you. Assuming your girlfriend doesn't dump you for being a total plonker!"

Some of the team repeat the word plonker and laugh.

"Sorry Mr Hawkins!"

"Martin, you're no longer the coffee monkey, Shane's just volunteered to take over from you."

Mattie's been listening and waiting for the right moment, "Dad, can you join me?" It gets more laughs from the guys.

Joe gives them a stony look, "Someone want to join Shane on coffee duty?"

When he's satisfied they're getting back to work he squats down asking, "Have you found something?"

Mattie replies in a hushed voice, "You won't see it from there."

Joe gets under the desk, "What am I looking at?"

Mattie points out a miniature circuit board connected to a USB port, it's wired to a black box taped to the underside of the desk. "I'm betting that's what's doing it. Made by the same people that planted a box at the house. Let's talk in the car. Give me a sec." She fires up Internet Explorer and looks at the history, notes the URL, it's got an IP address not host name.

~~~

In the basement Mia's still got talk radio playing, she's listening in low power mode, doesn't notice them until Joe taps on the window, "Hi Mia?"

She looks like she's waking from a dream.

He can see her say "Hello Joe" through the glass but not hear her. A couple of seconds later she's unlocked the doors. "Everything okay Mia?"

"I was dreaming of being back at the Elster mansion playing with a very young Leo. It felt so real."

Mattie and Joe get into the back and close the doors, she's the first to speak. "I reckon the big box is listening for bluetooth signals, when it sees yours vanish the small board pretends to be a keyboard, tells the PC to send a screenshot of whatever you have open on the desktop. That's why you'd never see it with anti-virus tools or process monitors. It's not code executing on the PC."

Joe is slowly running his fingers through his beard, "Makes sense. But we need to answer the 'Why me?' question. What could someone gain from it?"

Mattie is about to say something when Mia jumps into the conversation, pointing to the other side of the car park, "Did you notice the car that parked over there?"

They look and see a white car. "No, do now, what's different about it?"

"On the side it's carrying Persona Synthetics branding."

Joe slaps his forehead, "The new account, you idiot Hawkins! Someone's hoping I leave company confidential documents open and leave the PC."

Mattie looks shocked, "Oh crap! Dad, we've done just that! We need to get home fast. If you want some damage control I'll need Leo's help!"

Joe jumps out of the car, "I need to tell Collin what's happened, I'll meet you at the front!"

Mattie couldn't recall Seeing her father sprint before. She buckles up, "Mia have you got Internet access from here?". Mia says she has, it's a very weak signal but working. "Do a search for Nigel Mansell, British Racing Driver. Then Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift. We want F and F skills but with Nigel's safety." Her father had some DVDs he'd never part with, used to spend many weekends at Brands Hatch. His autographed DVD from Nigel was treated like gold.

Mia is motionless for ten seconds then starts the car, "Buckled up?"

On getting a yes from Mattie she gets the car racing towards the ramp, executes a perfect drift up it's tight turn and heads for the buildings entrance. Mattie says nothing, just holds onto the front seat for support, grinning away.

Mia spots Joe coming out of the ground floor lift and winds down the window and as soon as he's through the door calls out "Get in and buckle up."

The moment Mia hears the click of his seat belt she's off again. It takes Joe by surprise, "Bloody hell Mia, careful! You're not Schumacher!"

Mattie laughs as her father also grips a front seat for support, "Dad meet Mia Toretto Mansell Elster!"

Joe's impressed with the way Mia's cutting through town, engine being kept at the optimal revs to maximize power. "Your idea was it?"

Mattie does a scream of enjoyment and laughs "Yes!" as Mia does another perfect drift around cars and a roundabout.

Joe's laughing too, "Sod the expense of travelling to Orlando for rides, this is the most fun I've had in years!"

There's a flash as they race past a speed camera, Mattie looks to her father concerned.

Joe just keeps looking forward, "Pete tells me it's still not fully commissioned yet, don't panic!"

Mia races up through the gears on the dual carriageway, hits 110mph before doing engine breaking to get the speed down for the roundabout. On the other side she's doing a leisurely 40mph. Mattie asks if something is wrong.

"Police car ahead."

Mattie and Joe don't see it until they're much closer.

Joe's impressed, "You saw that from all the way back there?"

Mia smiles, "I was a lucky girl, David experimented with Carl Zeiss optics and optoelectronics."

Car passed she takes the sliproad off the dual carriageway and resumes the race. Minutes later they're pulling up outside the house. Joe asks how much petrol is left, hands Mia three twenty pound notes and asks if she can go fill it up. No need to race as they'll be a few minutes.

Mia doesn't speed off but still takes a perfect racing line around cars and the bend. He stands there smiling for a second or two before heading in with Mattie.

Mattie slips off her shes, "My feet are killing me! Maybe Mum had taken me shoe shopping as a punishment after all!"

Joe and Mattie head upstairs to Leo. He's wide awake looking at a magazine.

He smiles at Mattie, "I wasn't expecting you back so soon, oh, hello Joe, something's wrong isn't it?"

Mattie explains what had happened, "Still got that tracing software on your laptop?" Leo nods and motions towards the dresser. She grabs it and powers it up, passing it to Leo. She closes her eyes and recalls the IP address she's seen in the browser history.

A few seconds later Leo says "London Road, small ISP and hosting firm", gives her a postcode, "Angel Hosting. Send Nis in."

Mattie shakes her head, "I want to fix this one, I'd bet they don't even know one of their servers is being used like this." She gives Leo a kiss and whispers in his ear.

"Tonight then."

~~~

Joe's saying "Don't want to know, don't want to know" over and over in his head, trying not to think of anything other than what he sees out the window.

"Dad?" His attention is back to the room, Mattie standing in front of him. "Coming along?"

Mia's drive to Angel Hosting is fast but only mildly furious. She gets a few beeps of horns from other drivers but it's accident free. She lets them jump out and drives off to find somewhere to park.

The firm is small, the two members of staff on shift clearly have to do all the different types of work. One is fixing a system, server parts strewn all over his desk, the other finishing a web design while keeping an eye on a backup progress report on his second screen. Joe waves an ID card, says the firm is suspected of being involved in Corporate Espionage. The two young lads look shocked. They're eager to assist.

Mattie gives them the IP address, the youngest of the two looks it up and says "One of our smallest VPS packages. 1 CPU, 4GB RAM, dedicated IP."

Mattie asks them to log in and find files updated today, to exclude log files.

The older of the two fires up a SSH and locates the file. "There's 20 JPEG files in that directory, oldest is a month old."

Mattie describes the content of the newest file. It's copied to a local workstation and opened. It's exactly as described, has 'Joseph Hawkins C5072 - Projected five year spend' in the title.

The lad looks at the ID card Joe had left sat on the top of the desks low partition wall, looks embarrassed, "That's your desktop for sure Mr Hawkins."

"Not your fault, you can't control what your clients get up to. Delete the lot please" Mattie asks. She turns to look at the screen with a progress report, "Has that server been backed up today?"

The lad runs a finger down the list, scrolls, scans again. He taps a finger on a line, "No, should be picked up in the next half hour or so."

"Good. You've saved your company from being dragged into some negative press. I suggest you carefully edit server logs to make it look like the files were never submitted. And you might want to get a security camera and panic button installed, some of your clients are not nice people."

The two lads look at each other, clearly uncomfortable with the thought.

Mattie is about to leave and turns back to them, "Do you have some business cards, I like to help promote small helpful firms." She's handed an unopened box of Moo cards, realizes the boys probably don't get much of a chance to network with others. Much like her Leo. "Any posters?"

They both shake their heads. The server boy bites his lip, "I could design one."

Mattie scribbles down her email, "Send me a PDF and I'll print it, stick it up on the Uni common room notice board."

~~~

Outside Joe lets out a big sigh and puts his arms around his daughter. "That was a close call, thanks Matts!" She says the firm needs better security, vet all the cleaners and ensure nobody tailgates.

"Tailgates?"

"Make sure the staff don't let anyone through the door that they don't know personally and can vouch for."

One arm still around his daughter Joe uses his free hand to call Mia, "Hi Mia, we can head home now."

~~~

Sophie had misheard Toby saying Driving Miss Daisy, one of the DVD titles in the charity box. She'd thought he'd said Driving Miss Daddy. Joe had laughed and picked Sophie up, putting her on his shoulders. "Have you been eating rock cakes Soph? You're getting heavier!". He moves slowly back and forth until she grabs his head and moves it in the direction she wants to go in. Joe makes a BRRR noise and motors off across the room. He does a pretend repeat crash into the wall until she pulls his head back and turns it to change direction. He's gets fits of giggles when she twists his head to the left and he spins around and around in circles, "Weeeee!!!"

Joe sees the others getting ready to go next door, "Can you drive us to Mattie and Leo's please Soph?"

She taps him on the head twice, "Beep Beep! Follow the car!"

~~~

Max hands over a large wrapped gift. "A house warming present for you both". It's a photo of the two of them in London, not cropped tight into a portrait format print like the one in the bedroom but landscape into a wide panorama, they were a third of the way in from the right. It's not quite black and white, having a slight two tone process.

"Aw, it's lovely Max!" she gives him a hug.

Mia has a box of two dozen beautifully decorated cup cakes. "Sophie, Laura and I made these."

Mattie thanks her, sees the look on her sisters face and adds "Leo can pop the kettle on in a minute eh?"

They all get a hug and kiss. Mia hands Leo another wrapped frame, it's a print of Leo and Mattie at the convention, Mattie in the foreground in her dress. It gets gasps of amazement, all sorts of extra junk has been carefully edited in the complete the compactor look. Rod has carefully cloned in Leo from a second image so there are two troopers and one princess just like the film. Mattie suddenly remembers that the slideshow hadn't happened, this was the first time the others had seen any of the images.

On the back is a note: "I had Rod composite this at my place, printed on my A1 inkjet to keep it private. Congrats on your recent success. Thanks again, Paul."

Mia has been passed another frame, "This one is for you to unwrap Mattie"

Mattie feels the frame through the paper, looks at the picture of them in the Star Wars outfits, "I've got a feeling about this one!", rips off the paper.

The others watch a catalog of expressions take turns on her face.

"Is it any good?" asks Laura.

Mattie doesn't take her eyes of it, but says "Rod may do the final edits for Paul, but I'd bet Paul has something close to the finished composition in his head. Without it how could he possibly have taken the right shots?" She turns the picture around.

Her father's impressed, "Bloody hell that's brilliant!"

"More?" There's another gift in the same wrapping paper, so likely from Paul. Mattie can feel that it's two smaller frames the same size. "Want to unwrap something Teeny?". It's a picture of Sophie as Elsa, the tree she'd been holding onto is there but now snow covered and the ground is a blanket of white, foot steps in the snow leading up to Sophie. Olaf is by her side and there's an ice castle in the background.

"It's magic!" She exclaims. A note says there's one copy for Sophie to have in her room, one for the rest of the family.

Fred is holding something rather large wrapped in brown paper, patiently as only a synth could. It's almost hiding his face, "It might be easier to unwrap this once I've put it on the floor."

"Any clues as to what it is Fred?"

"It was your brothers idea. Decorative, furniture sized, free standing" Fred tells her.

"Okay... " Mattie scans the room, looks to Leo for a suggestion.

"By the TV in the corner, to its left please Fred" he asks.

"Can you help us unwrap it Teeny?"

Sophie looks at her sister with her head leaned over and a smile, "I'm an expert at unwrapping!"

Leo puts the kettle on, gets mugs and plates out.

Sophie has most of the paper off. It's a massive LOVE sculpture, the L O above the V E.

"If you read it like this", Sophie shows a slight V path, "a V missing the V it says LEO!". She looks to Toby for confirmation that she's done it right, he gives her a wink.

"It's LOVEly" Mattie exclaims.

Leo comes over with a tray of teas, "That's great!"

Sophie is sat beside it, "Everyone helped. Daddy, Toby and Fred cut out the wood for the letters, Odi and Cindy helped Max and Fred hold things in place while the glue dried, Fred took all the pictures, we all helped cover the letters."

Leo had put the tray down and was kneeling in front of LOVE looking at the detail.

L was covered in a mosaic of small photos, each tile a smiling face of their Elster and Hawkins family members. O was covered in tiny silver foil squares, V in gold, E had tiny prints of album and single covers from their favourite music. "That's really special, thank you all", Leo wipes a damp eye before turning. "How did you get all these images without us knowing?"

Fred smiles, "Max is our surveillance expert, he's faster than ever with that camera now."

Sophie is looking at the ceiling making shapes with her fingers, lips silently moving, clearly trying to remember something. Got it. She puts her hands behind her back and declares, "L is for Love and E is for Entertainment." Laura's so proud of her three children, little tears of happiness dampen her eyes.

Joe is curious as to how the Spider-man and Black Widow shot was made. Mattie explains how Leo was upside down in a corner where two walls joined for Spider-man bit, herself shot with Paul up on 1st floor balcony looking down. Edited so Spider-man looks to be in building overhang, Black Widow swinging on web below.

Joe thinking out loud more than asking a question says, "Do you think Rod gives Photoshop lessons?"

As everyone is there Joe brings up the subject of the black box, "Sorry to dampen the mood but as we're all here.." He asks Mattie and Leo if it's okay for everyone to be in their house for a bit.

Loe says it's fine, he'll call Danny to come over.

~~~

Danny's given them both a matching pair of "World's Greatest Coder" mugs. "I was going to get an S painted on the end but then they'd not be dishwasher proof."

Daniel calls Matilda his "Pitbull Coder."

"I'm not one of your bikini babes OR one of those rappers!" she complains.

"No, like a dog!"

"What the? That's worse!"

"No, no, what I'm saying is that when you find a code problem you lock your jaws on it and don't give up until the problem, bug, is solved, dead."

"Oh. Thanks I guess" she replies with a cheeky smile.

Danny hands Leo a new box saying "Almost done, the hardware's fine, just wrapping up the code. Thought I'd drop it over now to save another visit. DC Ltd's getting mad busy."

~~~

The following morning Danny emails over some code for Mattie to copy onto the SD card, get the latest gadget FakeBlue working. Everyone's told that when the trap is set their phones must be off, bluetooth disabled or far enough from the blackbox under the eaves that it can't see their name broadcasts. To be safe Joe's going to put some stakes in the ground in Mattie and Leo's garden marking out where the safe boundary ends. Mattie's got the ID for Leo's phone copied from the iPad mini scanner app. They're assuming Leo's the target, they'll change the ID every few days until something happens. "All ready for Saturday morning" she tells them.

Sophie asks if she can stay and play. "Sure, half term will be over soon, what do you want to do?"

Sophie looks at Nis and says Arabella, Rex and holidays. The three of them have a doll adventure. Mattie's not been such a big kid in years.

Mia asks if she can do some baking.

"Mind if I join Mia for a moment Teeny?"

"Okay Mattie."

~~~

Nis and Sophie are still playing with Arabella and Rex while Mia tests some recipes she's working on for her new book. Toby is in Mattie and Leo's bedroom putting a large flatscreen TV on the wall for them, another gift from Daniel. Mia and Cindy hear something approaching, look up and both say "Car."

Mattie spots a black MPV pulling up outside, turns to Sophie, "Looks like Danny's back again. I wonder if he's got some cool new toys?"

Leo drops a magazine and gets up to answer the door. "Toby, Daniel's here!", he calls, from half way along the hallway.

Toby's sat on the bed frame, on the phone to Danny about the video mixer he's got to connect to the TV, "Mate, you've not been hands free in the car all this time have you?"

"Na, watching CNN and BBC Click on the 360 Projector, why?"

Toby jumps up, takes the phone from his ear, covers the mic and yells, "It's NOT Danny! He's on the phone to me!"

It's too late. Leo had already undone the lock and started to open the door. There's a loud bang and a scream of pain.

Sophie drops Arabella, and dives for her sisters arms, already outstretched.

To Mattie's horror she just catches the sight of Leo being thrown unconscious into the back of the MPV by one of two huge men. There's a screeching of tyres and they're gone.

She collapses to the floor in tears. The house, the money, car, ring, all of no value without Leo. Sophie is crying too, lost as to what she can do to help her big sister.

Toby is still on the phone to Daniel, "Dan, got to go, Leo's been kidnapped!"

Hearing this sends Mattie into crying fits, her world collapsing around her.

Joe enters the hall from the back of the house, freshly baked cake from Laura in hand, sees his daughters in distress on the floor. "What the hell is going on?"

"Leo's been taken" says Toby.

Joe forgets the cake, lets it drop to the floor and rushes to their side.


	14. Chapter 14

Mattie's hands are shaking like crazy. She finds Pete's txt conversation and types HELP. She reads his previous txt again and calls. She starts to explain and gets a "Mattie, slow down!" She takes a deep breath and tells Pete what's happened.

"Bit quiet up here, we'll head down to London. Will make calls while travelling."

Hands still shaking she thanks Pete, adds "See you soon" and hangs up.

Mattie's got SoundCloud playing. Having reached the end of her playlist it's playing tracks that match the mood, she's not bothered to get up and change it. She's sat there, staring blankly out of the window, listening to Jamie Lou Stenzel's BAD KINGDOM cover with Moderat. 'This is not what you wanted, not what you had in mind'. An icy cold shiver brings goose bumps to her arms. The song's lyrics and tone are horribly close to what she's feeling.

The track changes to a remix of Ed Sheeran's Bloodstream and Mattie bursts into tears. The track changes to the Layer Cake theme tune. She'd Googled the lyrics after hearing it the first time, it was fear. Glad to be here? Not without Leo. Tears still falling she gets up and stops the music. There's total Silence. The house sounds empty.

~~~

Pete, Karen and The Beemer Boys as she's nicknamed them have no idea where he is. CCTV doesn't show the black car anywhere. It's as if it had never existed, all a fragment of Matilda's imagination, her never ending nightmare. It's three weeks before she can bring herself to play music again.

~~~

Nero: Me and You plays out. She stands motionless, "Am I dreaming?" she asks herself aloud. Their shared playlist has new tracks. Only two people have access to the account.

Mattie has been listening to the whole album in case it has clues. She turns off bluetooth, crosses the garden and goes into Toby's room, pulls down the blackout blind. She puts on Nero:Guilt and turns up the volume as loud as it will go without distorting. Her father had laid down some rules on when Toby could use it, not upset their neighbours. Fuck it. She wasn't Toby and some rules needed to be broken. Thanks to the IMAX grade bass canons installed in the loft space by Danny and his father it's bone shaking concert loud. 

She lies on the floor eyes closed in the dark, skin tingling with what the music does to her both mentally and physically. The tears flow down into her ears. When the vocals sing "sometimes I feel you should be crawling back to me, Time is ticking by without us knowing, Before you know it. It will be too late to see" for the third time they start to flow like a tap has been opened. The hard shell she hid behind had long cracked with Leo about. Evian. Mattie thinks she's cried so much and drunk so much bottled water her tears might as well be pure Evian. Her physics teacher had told the class "You're all special, made of the same matter from the hearts of stars". Harun had for a fleeting moment believed the teacher when he'd said "You all have a place and purpose in this universe, some will find it sooner than others." He'd gone back to his defeatist "I'm useless" belief soon after, his father constantly saying so.

When the words "sense at all" are repeated quickly three and a half minutes into the track she's struck by how the words merge and sound instead like Sentinel. She'd had talks about them in history, had to write about one in homework. Homework she'd done with Leo looking at the sketch she'd done for it, joked how she was just filling space to need less words. Sentinel; A soldier stationed as a guard. Was that a clue? Eyes stinging she looked into the dark as she heard Sentinel, Sentinel, Sentinel over and over. She smiled, thought of the moment Sophie had surprised them with the use of the word and whispered to herself, "You cryptic clever bastard Leo!"

She doesn't make a sound or movement until the track stops and there's a knock on the door. She hits pause on the remote, her finger already poised over the button.

"Slap Chops, you okay?" calls Toby, she can hear real concern in his voice.

"No, Knob Cock."

"Wanna talk?"

"Not really."

"If you change your mind I'll be downstairs."

"Thanks."

The music resumes.

~~~

Album done Mattie heads downstairs, face a mess, ears ringing from the pounding they'd got from the music. Her parents house should be empty with everyone in hers. Toby hears her coming and goes to the hall, they meet halfway. She steps up close and puts her arms around him. Toby's a bit taken aback, has he ever had a hug quite like this from his sister before? No, least not one he remembers. He slowly returns the hug. He's not sure if he's just a Leo substitute until she says "Thanks for being there for me Tobbs", in quite a loud voice, not able to hear herself properly.

~~~

Questioned about her safety Nis replies "It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.."

Toby, Nis and Holly-Anne had been watching her fathers DVD Star Trek box set. Nis had fallen for the older Spock, kind and logical, looked heartbroken when she learnt the actor Leonard Nimoy had passed away. She had always known Leo as just Leo, considered the possibility that it was short for Leonard. She liked his #LLAP sign off on Twitter and resolved to do just that.

Her thoughts back on the discussion she added, "I got out of the smash club unharmed, and I hadn't gone in armed with anything, just made use of things available.". She grits her teeth, "This time will be different".

Danny's playing chauffeur, having installed, as he puts it, "More gadgets than a James Bond Quartermaster's wet dream". Nis is enjoying the ride, checking some of her accessories, giving them a polish to pass the time. She'd accessed the local planning database for all buildings with the required features and cross referenced it with a listing of suitable businesses.

Niska checks the first two buildings and returns both times saying, "He's not there, next please Daniel". The third building had her returning with a scowl. "Filthy people. They had a cracked sewer pipe that looks to have been leaking for months. The place stank!"

Danny smiles, "Give me two secs and I'll report it, the inspectors will have it shut in no time."

"Add it to your To Do list please." Niska asks.

Danny sees the look on her face through the rear view mirror. "Good point. Which next?"

~~~

Mia turns from the oven, pavlova in hands, "A car has pulled into the drive"

Mattie races to the door, adrenaline flowing. Close to cracking she thinks if it's not family they better be ready for a fight to the death! She opens the door to see only Danny. Her heart sinks. He turns and steps to the side to reveal Leo by the car, his arm over Niska's shoulder.

"Leo!"

"Mattie!"

She runs to them both. Leo is in high spirits but looks weak. He's got quite a beard, hums of body odor. She'd met tramps on the street that looked better. "Is that you?" she asks.

"The smell? Sorry yes. It wasn't exactly five star accommodation. More like two Black Hole."

"Didn't they feed you?"

"Yes, horrid soups, and not much of it. I had to get creative. I pinched fruits that were just in reach that I could eat whole. Don't try a banana, the skins are vile!"

Mattie helps Leo upstairs to the bathroom and turns on the taps. "Get undressed, I'll be back in a sec."

She races downstairs and gives Niska the biggest hug. "Thanks Nis!"

"No need to thank me."

"There is, there really is."

She gives Danny a similar hug and thanks. 

"It's okay sis."

"What did you just say?"

"The female form of brov?"

Mattie hugs him again, thinks 'Welcome to the crazy family!'

She thanks them again and races upstairs taking two steps at a time. Leo hadn't needed asking, he's sat in a mass of bubbles, scrubbing himself down with a loofah. Mattie makes a mental image of him sat there with a bunch of shopping bags instead of bubbles, her way to remember to replace it. If her mother found out how dirty it had already gotten she'd have a fit.

Leo had been so dirty they had to clean tide marks off the side of the bath before running a second one. Mattie finds her fathers shaver and puts in a new blade. Something else to replace. She gets Leo to hold his head underwater for five minutes, nose just above. He's clearly uncomfortable with the idea at first but with her hands supporting his head he finally relaxes into her hold.

She smothered his face in foam, careful not to get it in his eyes, cleared his nose and ran a finger over his lips. She resisted the urge to give him a kiss. The next fifteen minutes were spent slowly giving him a shave. She soon realised it would have been easier giving him a trim with scissors first. Lesson learnt. At last the smelly tramp was gone and a handsome boyfriend back. The bubbles had gone, she was horrified to see the water a little pink. "Leo you're bleeding!"

"Don't I always?"

"One moment. Don't touch the towels."

She steps out of the room and finds the older coloured towels that the family didn't use that often. Her mother understood Leo's predicament but still wouldn't take kindly to her nice new fluffy white towels being blood stained.

Back in the bathroom she helps Leo out and wraps a towel around his waist. They hug and kiss. She tastes mint and wonders who's toothbrush he'd used. She turns her head, still kissing and sees his on the side of the bath, erases a full set of replacements from her shopping image.

~~~

Niska is happy for Leo and family, but very disappointed for herself, "Leo's guard was a wimp! One look at me and he ran! I didn't get to say a word or use any of my weapons, just my lock picks! I need to vent!"

"Not sonically please Nis!", Laura asks, "that last time was painful!"

Ten minutes later she returns to the room. They find throwing stars and knives stuck in one of the planters at the far end of the garden, no footprints in the grass, they'd been thrown the full length. Toby considers the accuracy of the grouping and speed at which they must have been travelling in order to embed in concrete. He makes a note to never, ever, get on her bad side.

Changed out of her black suit Nis returns to the living room, "As he ran he dropped this. I tucked it into my suit, have only just seen it's content". She's holding it out for Leo. "What is it?"

"Not good."

Leo tells them how he'd managed to rip some cable from an old iron pipe that had been left screwed to the wall at the back corner of the basement when they'd rewired. "The exotic fruits cage I'd been locked in was in the same corner, about three feet from the wall."

Mattie killed a snigger before it got out. Exotic yes. Fruit, definitely not. Reaching it had been a real challenge, he'd cut his fingers trying to get a tight grip on it, arms and fingers at full stretch. He'd got a few burns getting the bulb out and connecting the cable for recharging. A bit of water mellon cardboard box wrapped nicely into a cylinder about the same size as the bulb thread. "If the electrician hadn't been lazy and left the old pipe I'd be dead."

Pouring himself another coffee to stay awake Joe says, "Good job the garage is almost finished then."

Leo frowns, "Garage?".

Toby, Danny, Max, Fred and Joe had been working into the early mornings to get it done. Odi's right arm was still giving Nis some repair challenges, so Odi kept himself busy bringing cups of tea and coffee for anyone that asked. Toby would ask for toast every so often to keep his spirits up.

~~~

Leo's eyes are beginning to close, "No no no no no" he mumbles, his grip on Mattie's hand tightening.

Her heart pounds. "Shit, something's wrong!"

"Tell me when it kicks.." his grip relaxes and eyes close fully, a subtle smile on his face.

She breathes out heavily. A tear rolls down her cheek and is absorbed by her surgical mask. She laughs, her best defence against crying, "it's kicked in. Bloodstream."

~~~

Mia had been cooking again, this time something to help suppress Mattie's gag reflex when she sees blood. Fred promises he'll keep things to a minimum but it's unavoidable seeing some.

The operation is going well, Leo knocked out with horse tranquillizers. Max has installed one of the systems into Leo's right leg. With no shattered bones to reconstruct he's moving quite fast. Laura had him watch some of Noel's shows. He's used a combination of keyhole surgery and a pocket through which he inserts his invention. Using custom parts 3D printed in titanium by a firm in America Fred has the design more sophisticated than the one Hobb had received. Fred assures Mattie that by fitting them through the pockets like this Leo's scars will be minimal. If she's able to keep up the gentle massage and oil regime they won't go hard, there may be tiny marks from stitches but with time they will fade.

Fred is about to make the final connections into Leo's power systems. "This step carries the greatest risk" he warns.

"What risk?" Mattie calls out through her mask.

Fred explains how a short circuit could drain Leo's power in seconds, worst case causing combustion of the power cells or brain death for Leo. 

Mattie wobbles backwards and drops onto one of two bar stools. "Fred! How could you have kept that secret until now? What's the probability of it happening?"

"1 in 1,000,000 with my accuracy but a risk none the less."

"People win the lottery with worse odds!" She exclaims, "I'm not accepting them!"

Fred says they cannot keep Leo under for long. Mattie breaks their clean room protocol and pulls out her phone. "Daniel. What's your record for circuit design, home etch PCB and finished product?" There's a pause in the conversation then "Want to set a new record? Like some time today?"

She explains the problem and puts the phone on speaker, "I'll let Fred describe what he wants." she corrects herself, "what WE need."

~~~

Capek admits he'd had a few beers with old associates, may have let something slip.

"We went to all that trouble trying to spirit him away a distance from the house and yet again someone else gets to him! Do you think they'll just allow a third attempt? Fourth if you count Hobb's clusterfuck?" vein in neck bulging Robert shouts at Capek, "You blithering bloody idiot! You've cost us dearly! GET OUT!"

Capek is slow to move.

Robert gets to his feet, clenched fists on the desk he leans toward Capek, his face going stormy red, "GET. OUT!"

Capek doesn't need to be told a third time. Closing the door behind him he pulls off his tie, unbuttons his shirt and says just one word, "Tosser!"

He heads for the lift only to find two security guards waiting for him.

One motions past the lift to another corridor, "This way if you could please Mr Capek."

Robert is standing in his office, opens a draw and gets out some ibuprofen. He takes three without water and rubs his temples. No Hobb, Capek screwing up. His superiors didn't want excuses, only results. They had a thousand special ops synths standing motionless in a warehouse waiting for code. If he didn't deliver soon they might make him motionless. In a pale and horizontal way he wouldn't get up from.

Capek was fed up. He wanted the synth Odi that Millican used to own, why the fuck were the synths trying to grab that young Elster shit? And why was he getting the blame? Should have put the ex-cons on the job, not depend on some half baked dolly experiment.

He realises he's now a prisoner one way or the other. He either goes to jail or is kept an eye on 24x7 by Roberts people. "I can't even have a crap without those fuckers knowing" he mumbles to himself, hearing a guard moving around outside his door. Maybe a spell in the clink would be more relaxing. Robert blowing fuses every other day wasn't something he could put up with much longer. He'd lived for years without much money, didn't really need it, however much Robert's lot were offering. Fuck it all.

~~~

There's a knock at the garage door, "Matilda, I know I can't come in, here's the circuit protection device and a quick diagram for Fred on how to wire it up." the door opens slightly and Danny's hand pops through. No sooner has she taken it he pushes the door closed, "You'll need to wash it down with something to make sure it's germ free."

Mattie pulls her mask down a little to say, "Thanks Dan, we owe you one, Fred's already getting it cleaned. We'll see you in a bit."

~~~

Leo's on the bed still recovering from the operation, both legs up in cages. "No more cakes please, I'm dreading the bed baths as it is, passing all those lovely cup cakes won't be so lovely."

Mattie giggles, "Don't worry, can't be any worse than what I dealt with when Sophie was a baby!"

"But Sophie wouldn't have understood what was going on that much."

"You think?"

Mattie spares him the details.

She looks at her phone, remembers a question she'd wanted to ask earlier, "How did you add tracks?"

Leo stares out of the window, "My guard was a young lad. I convinced him to log into our account. I didn't have access to the laptop, it being on the other side of the cage, but I did manage to get him to hit play. I had to listen to many songs over and over to hear the right ones and convince him to add them to the play list."

Mattie recalls that evening, Pete, Karen and the family sat around the table looking at the list. "Several Nero tracks, 'Dungeon Dragon' by Mad Child. 'Gehdian' and 'Paskatinus Pirstas Hienom' two tracks from Hackney's Finest, they were the hardest to get. Our attempts to get the songs translated into English was a waste of time. It wasn't the track name or lyrics that were important but the name of the album. You knew that, did our heads in for ages! 'Five a Day' by Barnaby Bear. Only merged into the random mix thanks to another track Sophie had given a heart while listening on my phone. The mystery of Gehdian and Paskatinus solved Karen had said 'being guarded in a basement of a fruit and veg shop in Hackney'. She was the brains to Pete's brawn for sure."

"Glad you got the Sentinel reference, that was the key that I prayed you would spot, know there was a message."

~~~

The family are all having breakfast together. All except Leo who'll be stuck in the bedroom for another week or two. Fred wants to err on the side of caution and not risk complications from Leo moving too early. He's got 'tens' shock units gently getting his muscles moving to prevent wastage. Fred is worried that the bones won't have had time to grow into the implants enough, if Leo was to attempt standing now they might rip out.

Mattie's phone rings, she snatches it up off the table with her free hand, spills a bit of her orange juice. "Hi Pete!", she looks around at the others.

"Hi Matilda, it's Karen."

"Sorry, hello Karen, how are you?" she gives everyone a exaggerated surprised look.

"Is everything okay?", Karen enquires, "Only Pete was called to an odd case a few days ago. Two body builder sized synths were found shot in the back of the head, they had synth fluid poured into their mouths."

Mattie's face drains of all colour, "When was this?"

"The 20th, 4:30AM. Why d'you ask?"

"We did see some characters that fit the description nosing around."

Karen goes on to say the autopsy confirmed the fluid was poured some time after they'd been terminated as Pete had suspected. Most likely done to send a message to someone. "One had a scrap of paper with your road name on it in a trouser pocket."

"We're fine thanks Karen." Mattie is not sure why she wants to withhold information from Karen and Pete.

Call over she shares the news.

Joe links events, "That was the morning the helicopter woke me up at 5AM!"

Niska says they must taken action, defend themselves better. Leo has been taken twice already, a third incident may not end as well.

Mattie goes upstairs to check on Leo.

~~~

There's a knock at the door. "Who is it?"

"Max and Fred, may we come in?"

Mattie starts pulling up a thin sheet to cover Leo better, "One moment." Leo made presentable she calls, "Come in."

Max and Fred tell them both how they've been talking with Niska, are all concerned about Leo's safety. Danny had not wanted to get into an arms race with the likes of Hobb Inc. but had agreed to work with them on a defensive weapon. Toby had overheard the conversation and having recently watched the box set asked "Shoot to kill or stun?". Their idea was to create a disruptor like the one that had stopped Fred at the farm. Fired from a modified paint-ball rifle each round would have a microprocessor and sensors so it could tell what it had hit. It would be longer and thinner, more like a bolt for a crossbow. The chamber of the rifle would be modified to have a coil that would wake the round and program it's function. If it hit the wrong target it would burn itself out and not activate. If it hit the right one it would use different voltages depending on function set; Disruptive or Destroy. Daniel had drawn the line at explosive charges saying he "wasn't about to do a Tony Stark"

Leo had listened to their whole plan without a single interruption. When it was clear both Max and Fred had finished he said just two words before putting his head back on the pillow, "Do it."

~~~

Fred enters the kitchen and asks "Laura, could you help me with a problem please?" "Hello, Fred, if I can, anything wrong?" "Yes. Daniel has asked me to join DC Ltd as a partner, he wants more 'hands at the pump' to help cope with demand. He also wants to branch out into Healthcare. My apparent speciality" "He does? How is that a problem?". She rest on her elbows, takes a sip from her coffee looking at Fred over the rim of the mug.

"I tried to open a bank account. I visited every bank with a branch on the High Street. Not one will help. They all say if I'm to have an account it must be opened and managed by my Primary User."

Laura puts down the coffee, looks angry. "But with the Hawkins Legislation passed in most of Europe they shouldn't have any reason to turn you away." "I know".

She'd hoped the 'temporary' use of her family name would have been removed, that hadn't been the case, it was being referred to as HL more and more.

The banks had suffered with the PPI claims, before that the Libor scandal, "If we were to go public with what they're doing some Pro-Synth fat cats may move their managed funds elsewhere, push their bank over the edge".

Fred looked as worried as his power conservation circuits would allow. "I would not wish to cause bank instability, many people could lose their life savings"

"I know Fred, hopefully it would be just the threat that got them to take action."

"Like Leo's guard at the shop?" "Exactly!"


	15. Chapter 15

Another fortnight has passed, Fred has increased the muscle stimulation of Leo's tens units be still insists he's not to get up. Blood tests still indicate that the healing process is ongoing. Leo's slipped back into his old grouchy self, stuck to the bed with both legs in the cages.

One day Sophie had come bounding in from school all happy and had hopped onto the bed forgetting Leo's problems and he'd ripped her head off, figuratively. He'd apologized profusely for it again and again, had said to Mattie he hated the monster he was turning into. He was getting tired and irritable being stuck in the room 24x7. The TV, radio and Internet weren't helping, he needed to get out into the open, feel the sun and wind on his face. "Let it be put on record, I hate Mondays!". Mattie sat beside him and ran her fingers gently through his hair, "Don't we all". "I might hate it more, seeing it coming, knowing I'll be stuck in this room while you're sat in university. I can't turn on my side, stretch my legs, it's driving me crazy!"

~~~

The next night is similar.. "I've had enough of cages!" he snaps, his bottom going numb yet again, wanting to be able to move more.

Mattie had managed to calm him down by giving him a thorough bed bath and then carefully changing all the bed linen. Clean skin and freshly laundered cotton sheets had done the trick. It was quite a feat given the very limited amount he could move.

With Leo drifting off to sleep, happy look on his face, she playfully added Domestic Goddess to her mental CV along with her newly acquired Kitchen Goddess and Cosplay Supermodel. Diplomas from the University of Life; Professors Mia Elster and Paul Strickland. Life's rollercoaster was on a slow upward climb, she was feeling happy again.

~~~

The following Saturday Mattie's sleeping in. She rolls and touches the hard cushion divider splitting their bed in half. Thank you God, if you exist, she thinks, that it was being unstrapped from the bed today and Leo would finally be allowed to take some careful baby steps on his upgraded legs.

She hears Sophie running around, call "I can't find my goggles!" to their mother, Mia soon after give her a "Here they are little monkey". Sophie corrected her, "On Saturdays I'm a little dolphin!"

Mattie was excited for Leo, but just lay there. The day will happen fast enough without me pushing it along she thinks.

She's just drifting off to sleep again when their's a knock at the door. "Leo, Matilda, it's Fred, may I come in?"

Mattie rolls and looks at Leo, she's not sure if he's more anxious or excited, his face a confusing mix of expressions.

"Sure."

Fred enters the room and gives his brother a smile. "The big day."

He runs through a number of things with Leo, stressing that he must take it very slowly at first. His muscles will take a while to get used to carrying his weight again. The modified tens units have prevented a lot of muscle wastage but they will have still lost some strength. He gets Mattie to remove the long straps holding the bed divider and pulls it all to one side. Mattie gives Leo a loving smile. She can't wait to hold him in her arms again. Fred slips a sheet under Leo's legs and starts to paint the skin where the rods are screwed into his bones.

Leo is impatient, "That will do Fred."

Mattie tells Fred to carry on, "You've already had one major infection recently, we don't want you getting another and having a leg amputated do we?"

Leo knew it was a statement not question and apologized. He'd waited a very long time for this, what was an extra few minutes. Fred gave him some local injections and asked if he was ready. Even with the pain killers Leo was in agony as Fred unscrewed the rods. "Who'd have thought there were so many pain nerves down there!" he laughs through clenched teeth.

Twenty minutes later and Leo's left leg is free. Fred gets Mattie over and tells her how to hold Leo's leg, help him start bending the knee and ankle. He's to remain in bed for a further two days doing exercises.

"What! I want to go outside! Fred!"

Fred doesn't say a word, just looks Leo in the eyes, his gaze unfaltering.

Leo knows he's right. "Ok Dr Foxen, you win."

Knowing the pain that's coming Leo opts to take a load of pain killers orally too, asks Fred to wait a while for them to kick in, get into his bloodstream. Mattie rolls her eyes. Leo really does love that track!

~~~

The next two days Mattie bunks off classes, "It's mostly free periods Mum" she tells Laura. She follows Fred's instructions to the letter, has to slap Leo on the back of the hand when he tries to swing his legs to the edge of the bed to get up. "Want to run before you can walk?"

Sophie knocks on the door. She used to worry that there was a wolf under her bed. The wolf was real she'd learnt, only it slept with her sister. It only came out when Leo was really, really, really tired and grumpy Mattie had explained, which was almost never. But it would be polite to knock and ask just in case. 

"Soph, if you can be a mouse, monkey and dolphin can't Leo be a wolf once in a while?" she'd been asked. "And what animal am I?"

Sophie had started to say Black Widow but changed her mind half way. "Black.. Panther!"

That had earned her a big cuddle and "Thanks Teeny!"

"By the way," Mattie added, "he doesn't eat people, he doesn't have the big teeth. You might get a big sloppy kiss instead."

That had Sophie running away saying "Ewww" and laughing.

"Can I come in please?"

"Sure Teeny."

She enters the room to see the cages have gone, Leo's in shorts, legs up on pillows making circle shapes with his toes. She pops her head to one side and asks what he's doing.

"Getting myself ready to stand up, would you like to help?"

She looks to her sister who smiles and nods.

Anything to prove the big bad wolf is a big softie thinks Mattie. She joins Sophie on Leo's side of the bed. He slowly swings his legs out and puts his feet on the floor. He holds a hand out for each of them. Slowly he shifts his weight and stands. He's hit with major pins and needles in the feet, nerve endings that had been dormant for weeks waking up.

"I'm out!" he exclaims, free of the bed.

Sophie giggles and pouts.

Mattie gives her a "shh."

Leo looks back and forth between the two, confused.

"Do you like chocolate or vanilla?" asks Sophie

"Teeny! Shh!"

Leo very gingerly bent over to come down to her height and whispered. "Chocolate. Shh!"

During Sophie's next visit, only ten minutes later, she lets the cat slip right out of the bag. Mattie asks Leo if he'd like a drink and follows her sister downstairs.

~~~

"How can you have a party if there are no candles on the cake?"

Sophie is telling Laura and Mia about Leo's chocolate preference and what shape she thinks the cake should be.

Mattie's rooting through a cupboard, "Mum, we're out of coco powder. D'you think Toby would mind getting some?"

Laura says that Sophie wants candles, why don't the four of them go into town together.

"Can I drive?" asks Mia.

"If you'd like to."

On the way in Mia explains that she rather likes driving, would love to experience driving a high performance sports car. Mattie grins, knows the experience would be exhilarating. Sitting on the other side of the car at the back she's well placed to do something with stealth. She does a quick search and clicks a link for Red Letter Days. Trying her best to make it a casual comment she asks "What sort of sports car?"

~~~

At the shopping centre Sophie asks if they can go into Mr Simms the sweet shop. "What sort of party doesn't have goodie bags?"

Inside Mattie sees her sister going through a tray of Disney Frozen themed Pezz dispensers, looking disappointed, "They've only got Anna and Olaf still."

The man behind the counter asks "Sophie isn't it?"

The four of them look over.

"I'm usually rubbish at names but after so many visits I get to remember faces. Mia, Laura, Mattie and you're Sophie. Elsa sells out the day she comes in. As members of your family have brought you in so many times I thought I'd put one aside just for you." He has the small package in his hand, propped up on the counter. Sophie's eyes look like they'll pop out of her head any moment.

"What do you say?" asks Laura.

"THANK YOU MR SIMMS!" Sophie gushes.

"I'm not Mr Simms, that's the shop name, but I'll accept it, here you go little miss. On me."

Mattie has joined Sophie at the counter to see what she's so pleased to receive. Her thoughts on branding products to help shift them suddenly changes when something catches her eye. On the counter is a small display of Spencer and Fleetwood's Breathtaking Mints. Two rows of three small flat square tins. Each is carrying a different design. In the top middle is 'Domestic Goddess' with smaller text 'One in a Million' printed below. The tin on the row under it has 'Grumpy Old Git Mints'. She smiles and says "Perfect", taking a tin of each.

~~~

"Well it was initially called the Coming Out Party for when you'd come out of the room but it made Toby laugh and pucker his lips, ask if I'd turned you. So we called it Coming Downstairs instead"

Leo smiled, "That explains the pout Sophie did. How about 'Leo Gets Up Party?'"

"You mean Gets It Up? Dream on lover-boy" she winks back, heading out of the room.

She's back a few minutes later with new trousers. "Mum spotted these the other day, thought they'd be easier to put on."

He slips them on and slowly steps out of the room, Mattie holding both hands just in case. He stops on the landing and pulls her close. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Everything."

There's a small bang and they're covered in little paper streamers.

"Party time!" declares Sophie.

It takes Leo a good five minutes to slowly navigate the stairs.

Fred is waiting at the bottom, "Is everything alright?"

Leo nods, "A little pins and needles left, so far so great."

Laura gives him a glass of his favourite wine, "Welcome back, take it slowly."

All of them welcome him back into the rest of the house. As Leo is still getting used to being on his feet again he alternates between standing for a few minutes and the sofa.

Toby puts on Thinking Out Loud, the songs first line gets a laugh from Leo, "Look, they work!". He has a very slow dance with Mattie in the middle of the living room.

~~~

Fred prescribes gentle walks around the park, early morning. 7 laps. Mia joins him and Mattie, loving to see the sunrise. Leo creates a new playlist for the walks but finds he doesn't use it, instead talking to the two most important women now in his life.

On the fourth day they arrive back at the house to find a delivery van outside.

Mattie kisses Leo saying "I've tests today, better get ready and head in."

Mia helps Leo into the living room and goes next door to help get Sophie ready. She looks at an apple for a few seconds pondering the design of the day. She decides on dolphin triplets standing on their tails and gets to work.

Danny's had a supplier ship samples direct to Fred for inspection. He sits in the living room with Max and Leo opening the boxes, checking out the parts.

They've made what looks like a walking stick, dual shot. Gas might have been good for small low mass paintballs. But it didn't have the kick to fire the bolt far or fast enough without using much larger gas canisters. Wanting to keep the size down Danny had accepted that low power explosives were needed, but only as a propellant for the bolt. Fred's growing chemistry knowledge gave them the solution they needed. Toby so wanted to show his teacher but accepted the formula had to be kept a DC Ltd secret. It had both catalysts and inhibitors, used exothermic reactions. It was a clever gel suspension of several chemicals. Nothing would happen to it until placed in a strong magnetic field. Everyone had guessed where Fred had got that inspiring idea, he'd even given a "Thanks Matilda."

In the field a crystal, much like that found in LCD, would polarize. In doing so it would alter the week bonds between the inhibitors and allow the catalysts to trigger a chemical reaction. The heat generated caused a subsequent cascade reaction and gas output needed to propel the bolt. Unlike gunpowder Fred's concoction started slower but rapidly accelerated it's reaction. It allowed the relatively soft metal paintball gun barrel to be used without modification. It also meant the was more of a woosh than a bang.

Fred examined a bolt, it looked like a larger version of the stick you'd put in a glue gun. One end was marked with a band of red. That was the back. The front was softer, pushing the plastic gently towards the back revealed the spike that would stick in the subject. Not by much, just enough to get the electric current into the target. Fred had got the inspiration for that watching a program on weird fish one night with Laura and Joe.

He loaded a bolt through one of the guns few modifications, a mechanism that allowed rear loading of a bolt and LCD. Liquid Crystal Detonator. Fred tried a test fit, the gun pointed up at the ceiling. He brushed the hair trigger and it fired, sending the bolt into the light fitting.

"Careful Fred!" exclaimed Leo.

Fred said he would work on the design to add a safety catch and make the trigger heavier. He got out one of the walking sticks and loaded it, handing it to Leo. "You might find this helps while you get your legs back to full strength."

Mattie enters the room, bag on shoulder ready to head out, "It sounded like someone just thumped my bedroom floor, what's going on?"

Leo's eyes move upward. It takes a second for the penny to drop, he's not rolling his eyes but looking at the ceiling. She turns to see where he's looking, walks over to the light and pulls the bolt. It takes a bit more effort than she expects, the tiny bolt fang is barbed. "You boys and your toys!"

She looks at the stick Leo is holding and gun in Fred's hands. "Good. Neither of those will fit in my handbag."

Toby had told Mattie all about the Great Wall and Time Square thing at Danny's and the light canon, there were bass canons above his bedroom, now these, was this part of a growing theme?

On her way out Mattie is met by the postman, a bunch of letters in hand. She's about to drop them in the hall when she notices the royal crest on a white envelope with hand written address. This wasn't a TAX demand for her parents. It was addressed to her. She threw the others on a shelf and headed back to the living room, ripping it open. She sat next to Leo quickly reading the letter out loud.

Dear Miss Hawkins,

From your name and address we assume you are the daughter of Mrs Laura Hawkins, primary author of the Hawkins Legislation. We had taken a keen interest in her work, a number of our elderly staff wish to retire and asked that they train synthetic replacements, custom models that looked much older than the usual mass produced ones.

We fully understand the problems your partner will be having being registered dead. We have instructed the relevant ministers to look into the matter further, please expect further communication from them. We wish you and your partner well and hope your problem is resolved post-haste.

She lowers the letter and looks at Leo. "Not a no then."

Laura's been listening from the kitchen and curiosity has gotten the better of her. Now standing in front of them both she asks, "Can I have a look?"

Mattie hands her the letter. Her mother looks at the top then jumps to the bottom, "Oh my lord!"

"What?"

"You might want to frame this."

Mattie can't understand why, her mother sees it in her face. As she hands it back she explains.

"The number of letters the Queen replies to in person is extremely small. Most get a letter that starts 'The Queen wishes me to write and Thank you ..' and is signed by one of her ladies in waiting. You've clearly spiked her interest. I wonder if she's aware of your award?"

Mattie pulls a face, "The Queen? I doubt it!"

Laura thinks, 'Stranger things have happened and I'm looking at a couple of them right now' but doesn't say it out loud.


	16. Chapter 16

Toby's quickly looking through the fridge and cupboards, seeing what basics they need. Unbeknown to him Laura's watching. He turns to leave the kitchen and sees her, arms folded smiling at him.

"I was just looking to see what else we need from the shops, I'm off to get more apricot jam, keep Odi happy."

"That's very thoughtful of you Toby." she walks over to a tin and pulls out a 20 Pound note, "Get a selection of jams and marmalade, that should give Odi something new to add to his list. It won't be all George, George, George then."

~~~

Holly-Anne's finishing her shift in a few minutes, "Give me 5 and I'll help you pick some." she starts serving a customer and deftly places a 'CLOSED' sign on the counter without the customer batting an eyelid.

They're looking at a large collection, spoilt for choice. "Your Dad might like this" she says, passing a jar of Orange Marmalade with Malt Whisky. They get strawberry jam for Sophie, apricot for themselves, raspberry and blackcurrant for whoever fancies some.

"Dads got a load of his Trekkie mates over this evening, it's going to be noisy, you can bet there will be beers and films."

Result! Toby gives her a smile, "You can always come over to ours, I'm sure Mum or Mia can make you some dinner if you'd like?"

She gives him a peck on the lips, "I'd like that. Now let me pay for those, use my staff discount."

~~~

Jams stacked into the crowded cupboard Toby sits down with Holly-Anne in the living room, joining Mattie, Niska and Odi. "We've got loads of jam Odi, plenty to pick from."

Odi recalls Georges preference again, mentions the i-i-i-ice-cream again.

Niska looks a little upset, puts her hand on Odi's. "I wish I could fix that for you Odi." she looks at Holly-Anne and Odi, "Something's too degraded, not fixable." she leaves the room, not in any hurry, looking a bit preoccupied.

They watch the last half hour of a film on endangered animals.

~~~

Odi's looking withdrawn again so Toby tells Odi all of the flavours they'd bought.

Odi thinks George might have liked "Orange Marmalade with Malt W-W-W-Whisky."

Holly-Anne turns to look at Mattie, "Shame you can't do a Vulcan mind meld, get his consciousness into a new head."

Mattie raises an eyebrow, "You and your Trek!"

"Sorry!"

Mattie's already leaving the room, "Don't be, you're a frigging genius! Hold on to that one Knob Cock, she's a keeper!"

She kisses Holly-Anne on forehead on the way past, takes a sneaky-peak at her roots. No, not dyed. Amazing!

"What was that all about?" asks a confused Toby.

A moment later she's back "Any idea where Niska went?"

~~~

Niska looks up from the array of printouts on Toby's desk, acknowledges Mattie. "I've never cracked a head open before." she pauses for a moment. "Cracked maybe, but not opened. I'm trying to think of all the problems that might arise so we can have solutions ready."

Mattie's looking at the printouts, know's exactly what Niska's been thinking, "Wow NYLON."

"I'm sorry?"

"New York, London. I'll explain later." Mattie slides some of the prints sideways, sees one Nis had added annotations to. In the top corner is a doodle of a heart with two interlocked gears inside. The lines have been drawn over and over again, the pen starting to cut through the paper. Mattie runs a finger over the design, feels the embossed effect the repeated drawing has made.

Nis lightly taps the pen on the table marking out the seconds, "My thoughts are in turmoil, one part of me thinks of him like a son, I gave him the consciousness program. The other loves him like a partner."

Mattie hears the longing in her voice. Niska's not been treated well by human men, and the ones she's started having feelings for have all died. "You didn't give Odi consciousness. David Elster did with his program, you just facilitated it. Like a nurse or a doctor."

Niska stops the tapping. "You believe that?"

Mattie thought fast, she needed to draw a line under this for Nis. "Yes. I could be named after the team that delivered me in the hospital rather than be called Hawkins if parents included those who helped in my birth."

She has another idea, her creative juices flowing. "If you were to write your own version of David's program then you'd have the right to call yourself mother."

Nis smiles, draws another gear heart. She's lightning fast like the card drawing machine some Birthday Card shops used to have in the 90s, the pen a blur. She writes N in one and O the other. Then crosses it out and draws it again, O Above the N. ON not NO. She smiles softly, "Thank you Mattie."

~~~

"The Burke and Hare murders, or West Port murders, were a series of murders committed in Edinburgh, Scotland, over a period of about ten months in 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 16 victims to Doctor Robert Knox as dissection material for his well-attended anatomy lectures."

"Liking Wikipedia Nis?" asks Toby, "How's that relevant?"

Niska smiles, "I need a synth equivalent of body snatchers. D series only. There are now ten smash-clubs across London, if we're to find one before it's ruined we'll need to split up."

Joe's uncomfortable with the idea of Toby in the ring with a broken synth.

"I'm not asking you all to fight one, just be my eyes and ears. The adults can step in if needed."

Leo's really concerned, nobody has done anything like this before, as far as he knows.

Mia, places a hand on his, "Neither had David when he saved you Leo."

"True. I'm worried something will go wrong, it's too risky."

~~~

Mattie asks if some extra programming would be given to Odi, have it replicate everything to a new host.

Leo shakes his head, "If you do a straight sync you'll copy all of the corruption too."

Matties asks if another system could act as a proxy, sit in the middle and clean the data before passing it on.

"It could, but it would take many hours on your PC, there's a LOT of data in a synth head."

Mattie points out that they know someone who could get them a bleeding-edge server.

"It's not just that, there is a lot of fluid in a synth head just as there is blood in a human brain. The fluid loss could be fatal."

Niska points out that they'd fixed Max, could do the same for Odi. "Can we use the garage please Joe?"

Fred volunteers to be lead surgeon. "I will part Odi's hair with a comb, use the individual hairs to help stitch the incision back together once the surgery is complete."

~~~

The next three weeks are spent looking for a D. Niska is being driving around London in Danny's Lexus, checking for new smash-clubs being opened. Her phone chimes.

A text from Toby. 'D spotted. Same height n build as Odi. 1 bad leg. At back of pen so hopefully won't get picked.'

The next text is a door number and postcode. She looks up at Danny in the rear view mirror, "We're on."

In the fifteen minutes it takes them to get there she's changed contact lenses and put on a wig she'd borrowed from Mattie. She loves the copper colour. A dark, almost black lipstick and blusher to make her cheekbones more pronounced helps change her look even more. "Do you have the light show ready?"

Danny says that impersonating a police office could get him jail time.

"I'm not asking you to do that, just make the car like one for a few seconds. Give me 45 seconds once I'm at the door."

Danny gets his stopwatch ready, watches her walk over to the entrance. Danny likes these missions, hopes there will be more, but not to rescue family in some way or other. Beep. 45.. 44.. 43.. He clicks a button on the console and some low frequency Dubstep fills the air.

15.. 14.. he slowly turns it down as if the car is leaving and gaining distance. 3.. 2.. 1.. he hits another button and the blue lights under the grill come on, super bright and strobing. Two tone sirens pierce the air. The front door opens a tiny bit and face peeps out.

About fifteen seconds later a group of people can be seen running from an alleyway further down the street. Great. Back entrance, no bother up front.

A further twenty seconds later and Niska is leaving the club, synth being dragged behind her.

On getting into the car he looks at Danny and turns to Niska, "He is not my primary user, where are you taking me?"

Before he can say anything more Nis reaches for his chin and powers him off. "I feel a little bit guilty taking him for parts. But if I didn't he'd be landfill by the end of the week." she covers his head with a cloth so she doesn't get too attached.

~~~

All of the Hawkins family opt to stay out while the procedure is done, not wanting to have nightmares over what they'd see. It's just Fred, Niska and Odi, with Max and Mia on call if needed.

~~~

Capek's phone goes, a new txt from an unknown number. He knows the number, knows better than to save it.

'Job done. Debt cleared right?'

He types 'Yes' and goes to hit send. He pauses for a moment, thinks about all the bridges already burnt, adds 'Thanks' then sends. He watches for the message delivered status and deletes the conversation. If it was to be found it wouldn't be on his phone. Part one of his plan had worked. Part two better work as well or they'd lock him up and throw away the key. He got up and crept to the door, locked himself in. If anyone was coming in he wanted an extra second or two. When Robert had quipped 'Are you going to make yourself a better prison uniform?' he'd just smiled back and said 'Something like that, it will help kill time when not coding, used to make dolly outfits too'. Kill was the truth, time a lie. The sewing machine had two roles. The first was to make a noise that disguised the sounds of him at the keyboard again. The second was to provide power. He'd pinched a half used Y power splitter when asked to fix an old desktop for a colleague of Roberts. The power out of the sewing machine's foot switch also now powered his desktop. He'd managed to frig the fuse holder on the sewing machine so it wasn't on all the time, it would sound like he was using it. Should anyone burst into the room lifting his foot would make the PC look shut down.

He'd not fully understood the phrase 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' until now. He'd crossed a lot of lines recently and wanted to return, to quite what he didn't know. Anywhere not here would be a start. He pushed his foot down on the switch to power everything up. He logged in and copied his code to a shared area, logged out and then logged back in with the userid he'd noted in the other office. He was grateful for lax security. A password on a Post-It note stuck to the underside of the keyboard worked. Next he moved the files from the shared area into the persons private directory.

He loaded up the code and programmed a new routine. He did a compiler check, it said things were good. He ran through the code several times by eye, he had to be sure the logic he'd used was correct, that it wouldn't do something unexpected like last time.

He did a Google image search and selected the largest, sharpest and best lit image of Robert he could find. He saved the code and launched another program. The cursor blinked next to the prompt.

SYNTHETIC UNITS TO PROGRAM:

He jiggled the fuse again to kill the noise. He sat there in the silence, thinking, fingers poised over the numeric keypad. He could hear footsteps approaching outside and shifted in the seat, ready to lift his foot. He could hear the two guards talking outside.

"Skinny mocha extra sugar."

"Thanks."

Stupid agents he thought. He suddenly had a scene from the Matrix films pop into his head. He recalled saying 'crap CGI' at one point but suddenly had a new admiration for the scene. He thought about it for a moment, thinking back to something he'd overheard Robert saying on the phone. Slowly and quietly he typed 998 and hit return.


	17. Chapter 17

Capek continued with the sewing machine for another twenty minutes. Not just for the noise but to make himself some trousers. He'd not considered a career as a tailor but certainly had the skills if hacking dollies had to come to an end. Skills. The word caused memories buried long ago to surface. Not quite thirty years ago his father had told him, or rather shouted, "Got a talent? Fucking use it!" before clipping his young son round the ear and physically kicking him out of the house.

Capek thought about the man. The 'Father' role, he'd been told as a young teen by others, came with certain responsibilities. His father had ignored pretty much all of them. Capek knew violence and aggressive behaviour shouldn't have been directed at him or his mother, never found out what had made him like that. He would admit he'd followed in some of the mans footsteps. Not all, but enough to be too many.

He didn't want to be the villain in other peoples lives, it just turned out that way too often. Possibly because he'd been lazy and hadn't bothered to stop some things from happening.

He'd not had any good role models, initially learnt coding, hacking, modding from kids that were using dollies to commit petty crimes.

He'd got his hands on his first E series model when a trader asked him to fix some glitches and do a few tweaks, get her moving more naturally in the store. The kids had told him the E was the first that could take some advanced coding techniques, their processing core being quite different from the D series. Like Apple switching from Motorola to Intel they'd said. The owners thinking had been that she only needed to work 9-6 on the shop floor and could charge the rest of the time.

Capek had done as requested, the man had gone out of business before he could pay, let him keep it. He'd done some more mods and had it around the house for over a year, named it, her, Sandra. Over the months he'd made regular refinements to the code, added new routines here and there. Sometimes as an exercise in using a new technique he'd been told about, on other occasions just to kill time. He'd only done the final mods and sold it on when cashflow was bad. He'd had a long illness, was about to be kicked out of his home. He'd inadvertently jumpstarted a new sex trade for madam who opened a place in the heart of London. He came to regret the sale. He'd grown fond of the synth, had it faking all sorts of emotions. The thought of other men messing around with his girl made him angry.

He considered his double standards. He'd powered up the Asian looking one for a bit of fun, the junkers had brought her, a pale skinned blonde and male dolly in, said they'd been abandoned in woods somewhere. He didn't know her, had no emotional attachment, so hadn't felt any guilt in doing so. She'd been a fighter, proper freaky, so nothing had happened. Other than pushing her root code into another part of the file system. She'd been a bitch to reprogram, the root code kept popping back. He'd got shot of them as fast as he could. A contact in a Persona Synthetics franchise had been interested in any custom Asian models, said he'd get a good price. The madam had wanted another, so getting rid of the blonde was easy. The male one hadn't been so easy to shift, what with it's arm being stamped. He would at times treat vanilla dollies with contempt. But if he worked on them, made them a bit special, didn't have grief with them, the he became to like them, like a painter or poet might come to appreciate a piece of art or writing.

The cotton in the bobbin snapped. He cursed and jiggled the fuse to stop the machine. He only needed to finish the hemming on one leg and they'd be done. After a minute or so rethreading he realises how deadly quiet it was outside. No sounds of his guards chatting or shifting around in the corridor. He sits there breathing slowly for five minutes. Silence. The chair is carefully pushed back, his foot still on the switch. He undoes a shoe lace and uses it to tie the switch down, not wanting to shut off the PC workstation. It's tied at the end of the lever so it can be pushed off with his foot if needed. Capek taps the power button on the screen and creeps over to the door, unlocks it slowly and listens again. Still nothing.

He calls out, "Can I go for some air? How about some lunch?"

Still nothing. He grips the door handle and pauses for a moment. Did he feel guilty about the 998 synths, giving them Roberts photo? No. Not in the slightest. Prior to submitting the new programming he considered himself 'accidentally nasty', Robert deliberately so. Same end result, but very different intent. He didn't think the world needed an army of them, standard synths were strong enough for most jobs. These freaks were over the top. Had they achieved their new goal? He had no idea.

He opened the door as if nothing was wrong, "So who's coming for some air and lunch?", stepped into the corridor.

Empty. Except for coffee cups on the floor either side of his door. Maybe what he'd done now half an hour ago explained why the guards had gone. So soon though?

Capek heads back into the room keeping the door open so he can hear anyone approaching. The power button on the monitor is tapped and after a few seconds waiting for the brightness to settle he starts looking through all the files. There's so much information in there. One folder opens to reveal a lot of photos of people. Or were they?

He recognises the synth in MIA-0001.JPG

"Holy fucking shit!", he sits back in the chair, stunned.

This was the synth he'd had agro with. Curiosity and a mix of other emotions gets him reading through reports. Lots of them. Two hours later he sits back again. So that's where Elster had ripped the code from! These dollies hadn't been faking things, they were really conscious. No wonder the lad called Leo had been looking for her!

On seeing the name in caps he'd first thought it stood for Missing In Action, appropriate for someone being looked for, only realised it was her name on seeing files like FRED-0001.JPG and NISKA-0003.JPG. Capek then notices the common Elster surname. He sat back in the chair, rubbed his temples, head full of thoughts about his mother, Sandra, Mia and Leo. No wonder the Mia synth had put up such a fight. But why hadn't the others been such trouble?

He looks at the photo of Leo Elster again. A frown slowly creeps onto Capek's face as he reads the information that had been collected on the young man. "Unlucky fuck" he mumbled to himself as he reads about Leo's parents. Capek's own mother hadn't been strong, or at least not as strong as his father. A battle of wills always had her losing. But she'd been the one that had stopped Silas from drifting off into the deep end mentally. The verbal abuse from his father had been relentless.

Capek had been an awkward teenager, hadn't made it easy for his mother either. Regrets? Sure, he had a few. Not being at home was the biggest. He wished he'd been at home when the neighbour's house had blown up due to the broken cooker and gas leak. If they hadn't lived in a terraced house she might have gotten out alive. The party wall part collapsing had brought an end to her mostly unhappy married life. If he'd been there with her they'd have been in the front room by the windows, one of the few places to stay intact. She wouldn't have sat in solitude at the small kitchen table, on the other side of the wall to the broken oven. On hearing the explosion from the pub her husband had said "Someone's an unlucky fucker", laughed and carried on drinking, blissfully unaware he himself was to be the one receiving bad news that evening. His father had been put into council accommodation, they'd not spoken to each other since the funeral. Not shouted either.

One of her talents lived on in her son. The ability to meet a person, synth, think of a design, cut and stitch it. In more often than not in one pass, no messing around with paper templates. Maybe a tape measure now and again, but his eye was good, he could judge someone's fit just by looking at them most of the time.

He closes the folder of documents on Leo. In the top level there's a txt file named 'Remote cameras'. Most lines are location names that mean nothing to him, likely code names. One set stand out, all prefixed 'MUS Warehouse'. Military Unit was a phrase he'd overheard Robert use. S for Synth? What else could it be? To the right it gave network addresses and passwords. IP cameras? How kind.

His stomach rumbles again, loudly. Food first. When he'd done some other things for Robert he'd passed a vending machine. If nobody was about he'd rock it back, see if he could shake some crisps or snacks out of it.

The floor he was on and the one above are empty, had the building been evacuated? His exploring uncovers a spare unopened bottle for a water cooler. The cleaners looked to be in the habit of putting spare bags at the bottoms of the office bins. The vending machine has a warning label. 'Vending machine design prevents dispensing of free products or coins. Attempting to rock the machine may result in injury or death'.

"What a load of crock!"

He takes one of the bags and fills it with all the crisps and chocolate he can liberate from the machines on each of the floors.

"Prevent? No, make fucking difficult, yes" his arm is bent awkwardly to reach around the flaps at the bottom of the last machine. Still talking to an empty room he adds "Putting a deterrent sticker on a product instead of fixing a design flaw is bad. Even in my eyes!"

He's not a Milkybar fan so stacks them up on one secretary's desk. At least he guesses she is from the dictaphone, family pictures and other assorted items on the desk. He wraps the bag end around a hand and picks up the heavy bottle, heads back to his office.

He works through the list, one by one. Lots of views of empty rooms or car parks. Some overground, some basement. At last something of interest, the front doors have been torn off their hinges, forced open from the inside. The corridors look okay, nothing out of place. More car park views. Empty office. Another one of note, the door to the main warehouse area is on the ground, also ripped from its hinges. From a large dent in the wall it looked to have been hit with quite a force.

The floor cameras show one synth standing to attention, motionless.

He works through the rest of the list, finds the camera closest to the synth. Using the zoom control he looks closer. It's got a big X1 stamped on it's neck. Capek starts a search through the files, asking for any containing the string X1. It returns a few spreadsheets, one Word document and a PDF. He opens a spreadsheet, finds X1 is only a cell reference in a formula. He closes it and opens the PDF. It's says it's an addendum to another design doc, pending review and approval. He looks up at the top of the screen, page 1/73. Big 'addendum'! The design docs are heavy going, not set out logically.

"Different power up modes? Why would they need that?" he asks himself.

He finds the information he needs under 'Boot modes', twenty pages on. He laughs, "Safe Mode for a synth?". The document explains a mode that allows a partial power up, new code to be loaded in a secure way without engaging any consciousness. His thoughts return to Mia, how such a mode would have made the job easier. Then realises he'd be killing the existing consciousness. Had he killed her? The reports he'd got through so far looked to be saying no. The root code somehow put up a fight and survived.

How could code do that?

He reads on. The special mode requires a pair of encryption keys, one for the power up signal, one for the file transfers. He spends the next half hour looking through files for any that have content that look like keys. He has 6 possibles. The fourth must be the power up key. 1024 characters long, that matches the 8192 bit described in the document. He creates a simple text file containing the text "MUS-SAFEBOOT" as instructed and encrypts it with the key.

He makes the programming GUI he'd used earlier visible, sees it reporting '997 Active'. The new file is selected and Send button clicked. He quickly switches to the IP camera window again and watches the synth lower it's head and raise it back up again. It worked! He sets about programming the synth, gives it some new instructions. He's at the keyboard for fourty minutes, in the zone and writing code fast. Some of the routines he'd written for Sandra coming back to him as if written yesterday. He compiles, encrypts and sends. That too works. 5:1 odds and he had the right key first time? He chuckles. Maybe he should buy himself a Lottery ticket. After getting the confirmation that the code is loaded he creates another file with the text "MUS-FULLBOOT" and sends it. Nothing. He tries again. Still nothing. He goes back to the docs. To his dismay he reads that the first startup on new code after a SAFEBOOT must be in person not remote.

"Fuck!" He slams his fists down on the table, breaking the mouse. Ow! Bugger!"

He sits there eyes closed for a moment repeating words his mother used to say. "Calm yourself Silas, letting your anger out has never helped in the end". After another couple of minutes he goes on the hunt for a replacement mouse.

~~~

Back in the office he connects the replacement and goes an overarm drop throw of the dead one into the bin. Oh well he thought, the synth had been worth a try. He turns and looks out the window. English autumn, the sky miserable and overcast was already getting dark. It was only 16:30.

He goes back to looking through the many folders of files. A simple spreadsheet named 'Bluetooth Monitor and Surveillance Report' lists a set of telephone numbers and names. One is Leo Elsters.

Capek suddenly feels dizzy, gets a moment of clarity.

"Fuck!"

He gets his phone and calls Leo.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is that Leo Elster?"

"I know that voice, I'm hanging up.."

"Wait wait wait! We can help each other! Please, hear me out!"

There's silence. Leo had already taken the phone from his ear but could hear the man fine.

"Still there Leo?"

"I'm listening"

Capek reveals what he's done. Has a bit of an emotional outpouring, telling Leo things he'd not shared with anyone else before. What he's learnt about Leo, his own mother, Sandra. He was at Robert's office, where ever that was, playing dumb making dolly outfits.

"Sorry, but who's Robert?"

"The firm he works for was funding Hobb"

"Okay, carry on."

His guards were called away to deal with an emergency. Hundreds of synths after their boss Robert. He laughs, "Who could have done that eh? Leo, I'd like to do a trade, if you're interested and able to help?"

"Why should we help?"

"Until someone returns to the office I've got access to all the files on you lot, and loads more."

"So?"

"One in particular I think your dolly friends might like. A research paper by the youngest member of Hobbs secondary team."

"What secondary team?"

"There's a lot you don't know yet. His paper, says all cores in a dolly running your fathers code run in a cooperative cluster."

Leo butts in, "All synths work like that, you're not telling me anything I don't already know"

"But it says in your lot if any code gets corrupted, cores damaged, the one or few remaining can checksum data and initiate repairs, not just take thing offline. I think it might explain what happened to your Mia girl. I pushed her code into sensory data. A single processor core may have been fighting against all the others to copy the data back. Interesting eh? So. Any docs you'd like?"

"Maybe"

"I've also got a synth you might like. He'd be a loyal guard. Bit of a big bastard. I've replaced his code with baseline standard synth and all my best mods. Thought I'd seen some proper freaky things, now it all makes sense. I've programmed him to learn and adapt. He'll think he's conscious, but he's not. Not like your lot anyway. The upside is he won't do crazy unexpected shit like the one's running Hobbs teams hacks. The downside is that you may have to teach him more. All I ask is that you help me recover my Sandra and give her your program, make her proper like."

Leo doesn't respond.

"Do we have a deal Leo? Almost forgot, you'd have to help power up the guard. He's a bit special"

"Special how?"

Capek describes X1's physical build, boot modes, switch location.

"If you've spent all this time modding him why give him to me?"

"I hadn't thought about the practical stuff. I don't drive, only have a dirt bike. Done pillion with dollies in the past, he'd wreck my bike!"

"How do I know this isn't a trap?"

"You don't. You'll have to trust me. Difficult I know what with me kicking the crap out of you when you came to my workshop. You'll have to trust me, watch I don't do anything stupid to lose it."

Capek tabs through the folders, looking for the photographs. He finds a still from the video shot at the smash club. "Send the one called Niska, she looks like she can handle things."

"Send her where?"

"The warehouse to collect the synth."

"What's in it for you?"

"I want my old life back, crap as it was. Not be a prisoner of some jumped up corporate fucker."

"Give me a few minutes, I'll call you back."

"Don't take too long."

Leo hangs up and gets them all together.

Niska and Fred think it's a trap.

Mia is a bit more open minded, "Why would he tell you about his family and Sandra if just setting a trap?"

Fred thinks it's just to embellish the story, make it sound more plausible.

Max smiles, "I'd seen the work Capek was doing. Much as we currently don't like him he was clearly taking a lot of care with mechanical repairs and skin patching. And those stacks of material. He must have been making new clothes for some of them. Maybe he needs a second chance. Mia, Fred, me, we've all had one."

Mattie who'd sat silently the whole conversation adds "Don't forget Leo's."

Leo tells them that Capek suggested Niska goes. "He's got access to files on all of us. Want's to give us a synth in return for the program."

Mattie doesn't like the sound of that. "If we give him the program who's to say he won't give it to others? Can we lock it somehow to a given synth?"

Leo drums his fingers on the table, thinking. "We could encrypt it, somehow. What would it use as keys?"

Mattie fires up the Slate and searches the Headcrack site. "Decryption key could be synth serial number and manufacturing data all concatenated into one string. The trick would be working out the other key to encrypt with."

Leo stares at the Slate, "The decrypted root code would have to run from memory, never touch storage unless re-encrypted. It all sounds a bit too messy. If someone really wants the code badly enough they'd get it. Hobb almost got the lot, obviously got enough to get some meaningful research done."

Niska wants an answer. "So do we give it to him, upgrade his synth for him or decline?"

Leo looks around at them all. "I think we rescue his synth and upgrade her for him. That way you Nis, Mia and Cindy can be with her when she wakes."

Mia puts a hand on Leo's, "You're trusting more, a good sign Leo."

Leo doesn't reply, hopes he's not making a monumental mistake.

Leo calls Capek back. "It's a deal, we want every file there is though."

Capek agrees, says he'll give Leo login details, can see some workstations in an office via the IP cameras, bring a large external drive.

Leo looks to the others, hand over phone, "If we have all the information they do we'll be better prepared for any surprises."

He returns to the call. "Files first, then your X1, then Sandra. When she's ready we'll agree a location."

Mattie looks at her phone for the time. Only 17:48, it was feeling much later.

Nis calls Danny. "Hello Daniel. I appreciate you're probably wanting to relax after a busy day, any chance of a lift please?" she looks around the group while Daniel questions her request, "Joe is out with Laura and Sophie, I could get a cab but then someone might log the journey" she hangs up, looks at Leo, "He'll be here in fifteen minutes."

~~~

"Where to m'lady?"

Niska grins, their movie nights were fun, especially when Sophie could join in. "To the warehouse Parker, I've txt you the coordinates."

Danny does a quick copy paste from messages into Waze and sets off. "Any preference for music m'lady?"

"Something light and calm please."

Danny had the entire Elster & Hawkins music collection on a solid state RAID array in the boot. She sits back and watches the dusk sky slowly darken, listening to some of Fred's lightest classical collection.

When they arrive at the warehouse it's definitely a case of lights on, no one home. The human staff that had been on site have fled. From the rubber tyre marks all heading towards the road it was clear they'd left in a big hurry.

Danny parks up and gets out. "Can't have been long ago, the smell of burnt rubber is still strong."

Niska holds up a hand, "I think you should stay in the car Dan, it might not be safe."

"Really? Looks to me like the only thing we'll find is your butch synth and a few normal ones curious as to where their primary users have gone."

Niska realises he's most probably right. "Come on then."

They step across the broken front door. Inside the reception Niska thinks back to the hospital visit, looks for a fire exit map. She finds something close enough, "This way."

The office has a couple of chairs tipped over, their occupants having fled fast, is otherwise looking okay. Two workstations are powered up and still logged in. A printer starts up. After a short sequence of clunking and motors spinning up a single page comes out of the top. Danny picks it up and reads it out to Niska,

'Glad you could make it. From the docs I've been reading I think you'll find you have no signal in that room.

Username: stefanoz

Password: SynthMUSOct65

Smile!'

Dan frowns, pulls out his phone. Sure enough 'No Service'. He turns, looks up at the ceiling, turns again and spots a camera above the door. The printer starts again.

'Log in and start the copy. You should find a network share mapped to G: There's gigs of the stuff, will take a while to copy over the slow network links. Leave it to it and go find X1. And shred these pages!'

Danny nods to the camera, gets logged in and starts the copy. He then shreds the two pages. A third page prints. It's empty.

"That must be Capek's acknowledgment that he's seen us start the copy."

They find a couple of synths sat in a room charging, leave them alone. They turn a corner and arrive at the main warehouse floor entrance.

"Bloody hell!", Danny runs his hand over the massive dent in the wall from where the door had hit it.

Niska turns back to him, "The synth's in here."

"Bloody hell that thing's massive!" He gets his phone and texts Toby, 'This thing's the size of Edward Newgate in One Piece, Pirate Warriors 3!'

Niska calls Leo, "We're here. Yes, Daniel is with me. Apart from Dan, myself, two synths and X1 it's deserted."

Leo gets Capek on another phone, relays messages back and forth, wanting to be in the loop. It wasn't that he didn't trust Niska, she'd earned that back. He was a little worried she could be tricked into doing something dangerous.

Leo relays a message, "You'll see an X1 on its neck."

Niska confirms.

Leo passes on more information. "Capek says the root code has been changed. It can defend but no longer attack. It's power switch has been relocated to prevent easy power downs." He goes on to relay the details of the switch location.

"Okay, hold on", says Niska, she holds the phone out to Daniel, "Could you hold it a moment please?"

She gently opens X1's mouth. His jaw is massive. She knew she could easily lose a finger if it bit. Best not to hang around in there just in case. She carefully puts her index finger in feels around for the switch. She finds a slight bump on the hard palate at the front and presses. Then again, harder still. As soon as she hears the familiar boot sound she pulls it out. She wonders if Fred could give them something similar. Being powered down by a simple touch was a major weakness.

"I am synthetic military unit X1. Are you to be my primary user?"

Niska takes the phone back from Danny, "Leo, it needs to bond with its primary user. .. Me? I'm lacking human DNA". She turns to Danny.

"Don't look at me! I don't live in either of your houses, that wouldn't work out."

Niska thinks for a few seconds, searching her memories for recent events with the Hawkins family. "Have you emptied the car glove box recently?"

"No, why?"

"I believe you have one of Sophie's dolls in there. The one she thinks looks like me."

"What will that do for us?"

"Hopefully her playing with it so much there'll be enough skin cells to allow a DNA match. We bond from just a hand shake."

Danny looks from the synth to Niska, "If you think I'm staying here while you get it you've got that wrong!"

Niska rips the lining from her jacket. "Put this between your hand and the doll, but keep movement to a minimum, we don't want to wipe it clean. Know your way out?"

Danny nods, "Yeah, back in a few minutes"

Niska explains her idea to Leo. "Can you get Sophie on a video call?". She quickly sends him a txt, a script for Sophie to act out.

~~~

Danny returns, passes Niska the lining wrapped doll.

A moment later her call is dropped and the phone rings with a new video call. Niska holds the display up in front of the synth's face.

"Hello X1. My name is Sophie Hawkins, my agents here have a sample of my DNA. I am to be your primary user."

To Danny's surprise it doesn't question Sophie's age, or the fact she's not there in person, just puts a hand out to get the sample. Niska quickly unwraps the doll and places it in his hand.

Moments later it says "Sophie Hawkins you are now registered as my primary user. Please confirm my first mission."

Niska glances at Danny, a look of concern, she'd not expected that. No list of activation words and it already wants a mission?

Sophie in her matter of fact voice calmly improvises, "Your first mission is to ensure the safe return of agents Daniel and Niska to our home base. Daniel is in charge of transport. Please ride up front and monitor the road."

At the house Joe and Laura are exchanging glances and smiles. Yet again young Sophie is surprisingly in control of the situation.

Niska feels a bit more comfortable in X1's presence and stands beside him, holds the phone so they can both see. Sophie goes off screen for a moment, giggles can be heard, Mattie in the background saying "Go on!", Joe saying "No!", Toby now chanting "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

Sophie comes back into view, licking an Oreo. "X1, your new name is to be Arnold."

There's a burst of laughter from Toby.

Danny groans. "Really? Terminator? Couldn't you come up with something better?"

"My new name is Arnold. I am mission ready".

~~~

Niska gets into the car diagonally opposite Danny and buckles up. The synth is trying to get into the front and not doing very well. Talk about quarts and pint pots Danny thinks. He asks Niska if she can sit behind him, when she's moved he then slides the front seat back as far as it will go.

The synth now almost seated takes his last foot off the ground. The car leans noticeably to the left under the weight.

Danny whispers "Bloody hell!" ever so quietly to himself. The synth is having to lean right to be fully inside the car, is practically shoulder to shoulder with him. Whoever designed them probably thought they'd be carried around in military vehicles not civilian cars. Up until this moment Danny had thought of DC1 as large, needing extra care through width barriers and upsetting people at supermarket car parks. It now felt tiny!

"A bit heavy isn't he?" Niska whispers back. Danny looks at her in the mirror, God their hearing is good! He looks left to see the synth looking back at him, his head uncomfortably close.

"Close the door and put on the seat belt". The synth does as asked.

Danny pushes the down button on his Pebble watch to activate VoiceMemo and says "Active electronic suspension."

Niska calls Leo to say they're heading home but is reminded that they have another job to do first. Rescue Sandra. And guess where she is. Niska will have to stay in the car out of sight.

Danny curses, "Almost forgot the hard drive! Won't be a second!"

He races out of the car and dashes into the building at full tilt. Moments later he's running back, drive in hand, panting. Niska comments on his speed.

Danny still recovering from his dash is having to take deep breaths. "The adrenaline, had been building, since we pulled up. I hate big empty buildings, give me the creeps, I needed to prove, to myself it was okay, but also burn it off."

"So the running helped?"

Danny laughs, "No, made it worse! This feels like, a low budget, horror movie in the, first few minutes, after the opening credits. Let's go before, the zombies arrive!"

"I think it would be advisable to get your breath back properly first."

Niska's phone rings, Sophie comes onto a video call, now dressed in her PJs. She passes the phone to Danny so it can be held in front of Arnold.

"Arnold, we have a mission change. Leo here is to be one of your secondary users. You can confirm DNA when you reach our base. He has a rescue mission for you. Here he is."

In the background Mattie can be heard saying "Well done Teeny", Toby agreeing with "Good job!"

Leo comes on the call, thanks Sophie and explains that he is to rescue a synth being held against her will. "I'm sending her photo now. Her name will have been changed, possibly hair colour also. You'll need to confirm her identity from facial features alone."

Arnold questions the mission. "Synths have no 'will' they are machines."

"But you do?"

"I am conscious thanks to programming from Edwin Hobb and Silas Capek."

Leo wants to see their work, curious as to how badly patched up Edwin's is, what Capek has done. What the synth just said conflicts with the information Capek had given him. But maybe that was just a way to fool it into thinking it was conscious. The Turing Test wasn't enough these days.

A few seconds later the phone chimes, MMS message received.

Danny opens it and makes the photo full screen.

Arnold does calculations on the facial features; eye size and distance, nose and mouth locations and proportions.

He looks at Danny, "Extraction target confirmed". Danny has an icy cold shiver. What could this colossus freak of a synth do when given a more deadly mission?

Danny says for Niksa's benefit "I've got my breath back, let's go."

~~~

During their drive into town someone in an original Austin Mini Cooper pulls out from a side road, its owner not having checked for oncoming traffic properly. Danny has to do an emergency stop. With Arnold's considerable weight onboard it takes much longer and further than normal. The Lexus number plate gently kisses the Mini's drivers door. Arnold reaches for the seat belt release but Danny puts his hand in the way.

"It's okay, accidental incident, no threat."

The Lexus headlights are shining directly into the Mini thanks to the difference in vehicle heights. The driver motions to Danny to lower his lights.

"They're not on full beam!" Danny shouts, hoping the driver can lip-read.

Again the driver motions.

"I'll show you." Danny says, pulling the lights stalk back to bring on full beam. The light floods the little car. Every dust particle floating inside the car shines with the intensity.

Niska is sat forward, watching the little bit that can be seen over the Lexus bonnet, "Bet he'll be playing with his mash potatoes after this!"

Danny laughs, getting the reference, "Duu dee doo BURMM DRMMM". He makes two fists and flicks his fingers out. "Kshhh!"

There's a beep from an impatient driver behind. He looks in the rear view mirror, sees someone waving arms about. He smacks the hazard warning lights button, "I'm not budging! Can't go anywhere bloody idiot!"

He turns off the headlights. After a long wait the Mini drivers eyes have recovered enough to see Danny. He looks across at the man in the passenger seat, notices how the car lists to one side.

His jaw drops. He mouths "Sorry!", puts his car in reverse and gets back into the side road. He waves them to go ahead, doesn't want to check his door first.

~~~

A few miles on they come to a mini roundabout. Their car is now the fourth waiting for someone to go first. "Why do people forget 'Give way to the right?'" seeing nobody wants to go first Danny makes his move. "Snooze you lose! Bloody idiots!"

Niska frowns, "Why is everything bloody this evening?"

"Been using the word a bit have I? Sorry, not in the best of moods tonight."

Thankfully the rest of the journey into the city centre is without incident.

Danny is curious. "Do you know why you weigh so much?"

Arnold doesn't turn his body to look at Danny, can't there's not enough space, just gives him an explanation. "Titanium alloy skeleton instead of carbon fibre. Heavy duty ultra high efficiency hybrid motors. Five times the battery density of a mass produced synth. Fuel cell backup. Tool kit. We can operate for a full week under heavy load without recharging. Use common alcohol sources for fuel cell recharging."

"What sort of motors did you say?"

"Hybrid. The same physical unit can work like a DC motor, AC induction motor or Stepper motor depending on power and input signals. It makes field replacements easier. We have them in several different sizes depending on function and loads."

"Wow. Why so many types?"

"Different motor configurations for different jobs. Fluid pumps, small limb movements, heavy load drivers."

"Tool kit?"

"In my chest cavity I have a number of tools and three spare motors, one of each size. We have a full schematic stored, can do a number of self repairs if they are deemed necessary for mission completion."

"How long does a full charge take?"

"That depends. We have four charging points, for the fastest recharge they must be plugged into four different mains sources. Each will draw 10 amps".

Danny whistles, "40 amps! Holy shit!"

Niska sits quietly in the back. She'd have to talk to Joe about getting some custom wiring done somewhere in the house. "Is there any source protection?" she asks.

Arnold confirms, "Plugging in all four on a standard ring main or spur without it would cause a fire. We transmit a very low voltage signal at different frequencies into each socket. The signal is attenuated to zero over approximately ten meters of cable. If they are detected on other inputs at sufficiently high amplitude they are on the same circuit and the high current draw is not enabled. A fifth tone at much higher frequency and amplitude is sent on all enabled circuits to warn any other MUS that the power source is occupied. With this checking we enable as many power sources as possible while keeping the building safe from compromise."

"Overloaded cable fires?"

"Correct"

Correct. Danny looked at the brute and was glad it hadn't said 'affirmative'. That would have been too much. He sits quietly trying to commit as much as possible to memory, sure he can use some of the ideas in future products. He does some rough maths in his head. He'd been looking at 3D printing with titanium alloy for a cycling project with Toby. The direct metal laser sintering process was expensive! From the way the car was leaning to the left he reckoned Arnold was worth 25K for the scrap metal alone. Another 10K minimum for the motors, probably 15K for the power cells, who knows how much for his core. Probably no change from 100K in materials. And in all likelihood many millions in R&D for only 1000 units. Someone had some serious cash to splash!

Niska is reminded of some painful memories when Danny pulls up outside her former workplace. "If I hear the words 'panties down not off' again blood will be spilt!"

Danny turns to Arnold, "You know who to rescue. Minimal damage to property please and no harm to any humans."

"Affirmative."

Danny looks over. Fuck. Why did he have to go and use the word now?

The car suspension makes some noises as Arnold gets out, as if sighing, glad to get a break from all the weight. Danny makes a note to get upgraded tyres too. A blowout with him onboard would get ugly fast.

~~~

The madam looks at the concentric waves created in her coffee, looks up at the thing now casting a large shadow over her desk, considers pressing her panic button.

He smiles at her, "Your catalogue please."

She picks up the tablet and passes it too him. 

He flicks through four images. "I don't see her."

"It's only showing girls not with customers at the moment." seeing he's not going to pick one of the others she takes it back and taps in the corners to bring up control options. She selects Full Catalogue mode and passes it back.

"Number two."

"She's with a client that's paid for an hour, he's only just gone in. Come back in 70 minutes."

"Then I'm unlikely to be disturbing anything." he hands back the tablet and heads to the room.

"You can't do that!" the madam yells.

"I can. And I've already started." Arnold calls back, not altering his pace.

The madam grabs her pen off the counter before it vibrates it's way off the top.

A client just exiting room 5 sees him and races back in, slams the door shut, as if a thin sheet of glass would afford some protection.

The customer in room 2 is sat on the end of the bed, so far he's only taken shoes, jumper and shirt off. Arnold is so huge his body fills the window of the door, he has to stoop to look in. He taps the glass lightly.

The customer turns to see him, has a panic attack. Arnold waits patiently. No harm to humans he'd been told. He gently taps the glass again. The synth tells her visitor he must open the door, she can't. He steps forward slowly, arm outstretched. When he hears the click of the lock he quickly backs into a corner.

Arnold looks at the lady, "You are to come with me please."

The coward in the corner objects, "I've paid for a whole hour!"

Arnold looks at the mans hands, "I'll give you something far more valuable."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"The ability to walk out alive unharmed and see another sunrise and your wife again. Talk about this to anyone else and I'll find you, rescind the offer."

The man looks doubtful.

"I have methods you humans can't even begin to imagine."

The man looks down at his hand, thinks about the ring. A first visit to one of these places and look what happens. His issues with the wife paled into insignificance. "Just go!"

Arnold reaches the front desk, the madam is looking a little angry, "I ain't called nobody, had enough aggravation when I had a synth up and walk. She cost me a bundle, you just going to walk off with her?"

Arnold unzips one of the many pockets on the front of his jacket. "I was given this card for procurement of supplies. Do you take American Express?"

"Do we? Hardly a card we don't love! We even take Diners Club International."

Arnold hands over the card, "How much did you pay for her? Before you answer please be aware I'm trained in detecting when people are telling the truth or not."

The madam looks at the card, "The previous owner had some cash problems, let me have it for only 8K."

Arnold looks her in the eyes, "How much will it cost you to replace her?"

The madam thinks of inflating the figure then thinks better of it. "15K for a good one."

Arnold stares at the woman. She feels increasingly nervous, had she said too high a price? He didn't look like the sort you'd haggle with.

"Run the card for 30K. Give 5K to the customer. Tell him to take his wife on holiday. You never saw us. Delete her records from your tablet and anything else that refers to her. Do as I ask and you'll never see me again."

The madam swallows hard, hands shaking she fumbles the card into the machine. 25K for a synth she paid 8K for? She could keep quiet about that for sure. She could get two better than average ones for that money. Three reconditioned units. Most punters weren't that picky. Two and a conversion of some storage space into bedrooms would do nicely. Bizarrely the death, reported as a sex game gone wrong had caused an increase in business. Amex and two more synth, that would do nicely. She keys in 3 0 0 0 0, can't believe the number, tries her luck, "Any others you're interested in?"

"No, just her."

The madam presses the green button, hands him the terminal, "If you could enter your pin please?" Arnold searches his database. Finds nothing other than his old designation. He keys 0001.

"You need to push the green button. Not used the card before love?"

"No. First peace keeping mission."

"Really?

"Yes."

The card machine bleeps. AUTHORISED.

"Thank you. I would say pleasure doing business, hope to see you again soon. But I understand you want to vanish love. Please don't harm her, she's been my best dolly."

"I am on a peace keeping mission, no harm will come to anyone."

She pulls out the card and hands it to him, "As you said love."

Arnold zips the card away and puts his hand around the synths wrist. "We can go now."

The madam watches him leave, thinks he could do with some manors. A gentleman holds hands, doesn't lead his lady like an animal.

~~~

Niska sees Arnold leading Sandra towards the car, "Couldn't he have found a coat or something?". Arnold had brought her out in just her sexy underwear. Military programming clearly didn't include anything about letting a lady keep her dignity. "Do you still have blankets in the boot Daniel?"

Danny nods, "Of course m'lady", taps the button to open the boot as he jumps out. He meets the two synth just before they reach the car and wraps Sandra in the blanket. She smiles warmly and thanks him, reaches forward and kisses him on the cheek.

With Arnold taking up so much space Sandra is put behind Danny, Nis sits in the middle.

Niska introduces herself, tells Sandra how she had worked there until she'd managed to get out. She asks Sandra how she is, then remembers she's not conscious, just doing a good simulation. She smiles to herself, thinks about how they'd soon be fixing that.

~~~

They're close to the edge of the city when Danny sees blue lights in the rear view mirror. "Shit!". He starts to slow down and pulls more to the left. The unmarked BMW races past and carries on down the road, blasts the two tones as a minicab blocks their path.

"Phew, thought they were coming for us!"

A few seconds later an identical car comes out of a side road ahead of them and races off in the same direction.

"Do you think they're Pete's friends, the 'Beamer Boys' as Mattie nicknamed them?"

Niska smiles, "Quite possibly"

~~~

Sophie is still up, is shocked to see the size of her new synth. "You're big!"

Arnold looks down at her. "You are small."

Sophie beams, "I prefer the word Little."

He confirms her DNA with a handshake, her hand looking like a dolls against his.

She introduces Leo, he bonds as a secondary user. All of the other Hawkins also bond as secondary users, just in case.

Laura is impressed with his physique, has to remind herself he's a synth. She smiles at Joe and looks back at Arnold, "Do you have any physical fitness training you could give my husband?"

"No, it's not part of my mission set. I would need to research some for you."

Joe raises a hand, to gesture stop, "It's okay Arnold, I'm getting stamina training from Toby, that won't be necessary."

Toby grins.

Mattie gently rubs Leo's back, he's fit enough for her. Being crushed under a ton of muscle wasn't her idea of fun.

Danny introduces Sandra to them all, still wrapped in the blanket. Sophie being held up in Joe's arms reaches out and touches her hair, "You're pretty, I have a doll that looks like you."

Sandra thanks her.

Mia and Laura head upstairs to find her some clothes to change into. Mattie joins them, realising one of her shirts may be a good fit.

Leo's impressed, Capek had gone to a lot of trouble to make her appear conscious. Her conversation is very fluid and natural. It would be interesting to see how their program changed her, if at all. That would wait until tomorrow. He phones Capek, says Sandra, or Sarah as she currently calls herself, is safe with them. Capek makes a request. Can they wipe all memories from the moment he did the last code change before selling her? He'll carry enough guilt about what he'd done, doesn't need her carrying the memories around too.

Leo says that he and Mattie will work on it in the morning and report back.

Laura, Mia and Mattie return with one of Laura's ankle length skirts, an older bra of Matties, a pink and white striped fitted shirt and ankle boots Laura hadn't worn for years. Laura takes Sandra to the downstairs cloakroom to change. Having seen Mia change at the pool she's more comfortable seeing Sandra taking off the blanket.

She realises the underwear she has on is a one piece and opens the door slightly, "Matts? Mattie are you there please?"

Mattie appears, "Yes?"

"Can you grab a pair of my knickers from the clean pile by the laundry cupboard please? I'd not had a chance to take it all upstairs yet."

"Sure."

Mattie returns moments later and slips them through the gap.

"Thanks Matts."

Ten minutes later and Sandra is reintroduced to the gang. Sophie grins, "You're not pretty, you're REALLY pretty!"

"Thank you Sophie, you're really pretty too."

Joe looks at the ensemble, the pink and white shirt with tan skirt works, "A little jacket and some dance moves and we'd be playing Stevie Nicks tracks in the house again". He gives Laura an affectionate squeeze.

"Who's he Daddy?" asks Sophie.

"Not he Soph, she. Stevie is a singer, would dance in her music videos wearing a big full skirt."

"Can you show me on YouTube?"

"In the morning Soph, it's rather late."

"Oh please, please, please Daddy, just one!"

Sophie's got her angelic face on, the one Joe and Laura find hard to say no to.

"Okay, just the one, then it's bed time."

How could it ever be one? On seeing Stevie dancing Sandra is soon copying the moves, her singing voice is quite good too. Leo sits with an arm around Mattie, watching the performance. He's smiling, laughing, but inside he's totally confused. This isn't how he'd seen any standard synth behave. How could Sandra be picking so much up so rapidly, be moving so fluidly without being properly conscious? Had Capek in writing lots of code for her inadvertently come up with an alternative to his fathers? Surely not. If she'd been fully conscious would she have accepted being a slave of the madam? He hoped not. Looking through her root code in the morning would be interesting. Just look at her face he thought. That isn't a simple programmed response surely? She really looked to be enjoying dancing and singing.

Mattie knew what he was thinking. She gave his thigh a squeeze, turned to whisper in his ear. "She's very different to standard synths. We'll need to keep these memories intact. For both her and Sophie."

Leo slowly nods.

After a good chat about what they'd do tomorrow they head to their respective homes, beds and sofas. Sandra is given a space next to Cindy with Mia and Nis sitting to their sides. Max and Fred return next door with Mattie and Leo.

Mattie is about to head upstairs when Max calls her name.

"Do you think Sandra will be the same once she has the program?"

Mattie turns and comes back down to the first step, thinks of the task ahead. "Hopefully, why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

Max does what Mattie can only guess is some form of blush response.

"You like her, don't you?"

"I do. I've never had feelings like this for any other, human or synthetic."

"You do know she's Capek's girl don't you?"

Max looks down at the staircase. "Yes. Maybe we can be friends?"

Mattie smiles and places a hand on his shoulder, "Welcome to the world of complex emotions Max." after a moment she adds "Sweet dreams Max. Good night."

Max smiles back, "Good night Mattie."

Arnold stands by the front window of Joe and Laura's house, slowly charging on a single cable.

~~~

Joe is in bed, doing a search with Laura's tablet, thinking about the challenge Niska had given him. "How do we explain that we want three phase mains to the electricity company? That sort of thing is installed for businesses not the average house! And that thing ideally wants four!"

Laura kisses him, "I'm sure someone will help come up with a plausible reason. And four is three plus one."

"Come again?"

"A new three phase cable is three wires isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"Plus the existing house wiring makes four."

"I get your point. Not sure it's as simple as that. Whatever we get we'll have to get it installed close to where we have an existing socket."

He puts down the tablet and turns off the light.

Laura has another thought. "That does rather assume we get to keep him. He looks like one expensive synth. Danny said maybe 100K plus in materials to build. And that's with no R&D or labour costs. Surely someone's going to come looking for him? And do we really need three phase? He's not moved an inch since he took position by the window. Until Sophie gives him another mission I don't see him moving much."

~~~

Capek sits at his table, his mood playful. The documents he'd been going through had given him a load of ideas for future mods. All good stuff he could make money from, things he thought he could get licenced. He picks up the plastic bag and has a rummage, starts a conversation with himself.

"What would Sir like for dinner?"

"To start I'll have the prawn cocktail."

"And your main?"

"Roast beef."

"Any dessert?"

"Kit Kat. No, on second thoughts Rolo."

"Will Sir be having breakfast with us in the morning?"

He pulls open the first pack of crisps and stuffs a hand full in his mouth, starts munching.

"Not fucking likely, think I'll slip away early morning once I've finished reading thank you!"


	18. Chapter 18

Leo turns to look at Mattie. She's still sleeping, a happy look on her face. He kisses her lightly. "Better get up, it's Synth Day today!"

Mattie shifts, eyes closed, "Hmmm. Reading week."

Leo kisses her again. She stretches, blinks a few times. "What did you just say?"

"Synth Day. We've got Fred working on Odi, you and I will look at Sandra."

Leo doesn't know it yet bit today will go down in history as synth day, but for other reasons. Mattie kicks back the sheets and rolls up close to Leo, gives him a cuddle, starts drifting off to sleep again. He runs a hand ever so lightly above her hip, knowing it's one of her ticklish spots.

"Stop it!"

He does it again. Kisses her on the forehead.

She rolls away, "Okay, I'm awake!"

He rolls to her, kisses her again, pulls her body close, squeezing tight.

Mattie admits to herself there were worse ways of being woken up. "Fancy a good breakfast before we get looking through code and her memories?"

Leo gives her another kiss. "Please. Her code and memories will likely be closely interwoven, we'll have our work cut out."

He runs a hand down her back onto her bottom and pulls her tight again, gives her another kiss.

Mattie wants to continue but pushes him away, "Easy Wolfie, too much of that and we'll never get out of this room and looking at her code. I'll ask Mia if she minds helping get breakfast ready". She throws on a jumper and goes to pull on her black jeans. She gets her toes through the hole at the knee on one leg and rips them open even more. "Oh frigging hell!"

Leo laughs, "I can't believe some of you buy them with big holes already cut in them. Nis was watching pop videos with Sophie, the singer had the whole of the front cut away. They looked more like shorts at the top. Natalie La Rose, Around The World. One minute twenty if you want to take a look."

Mattie flops back on the bed, "Such a pain having a memory you can't erase eh?" She says with a grin.

"There's got to be a silver lining to the darker side of it."

"I've been hearing her play some tracks over and over. Not sure Mum and Dad would approve of the lyrics if they really stopped to listen properly".

"Such as?"

"I've got my mind on your body and your body on my mind."

"Do you?" he asks with a grin.

"Yes. But breakfast is going to be in half an hour. It won't cook itself. Come on, get up!"

Leo moves fast, gets on his hands and knees, head above hers. He gives her another kiss. "Does this count?". Mattie runs her fingers through his hair, "Close enough. Sod it, five minutes then."

~~~

Leo puts his knife and fork together and wipes his mouth. "Thank you ladies, that was lovely." he reaches for his mug and takes a big swig of coffee. "Time to fire up the laptop." he steps away from the table for a moment to get it.

Mia and Mattie clear away the plates. Mia stands close, "He's loving his food isn't he! I bet he'd have finished a second plate full given the chance."

Mattie grins, "Have you noticed how his physique has been changing? Since the operation he's been so much more active. He's had to get different trousers, I bet he's put on at least a couple of inches around his thighs. And that's not due to the implants, that's new muscle."

Mia rinses the plates before putting them in the dish washer. "I had noticed a change. His tops look tighter too."

"I don't understand how but his shoulders and arms are getting stronger as well. He's loving those little cakes you make. You may have noticed the EM ones all vanish in no time."

"I had. You know with all the nuts and seeds they're high in protein?"

"I hadn't, thought he just liked the taste. He's a new beast now." Mattie says with a sparkle in her eyes.

Mia stops and looks suddenly serious. "You know he's not keen on the Wolfie nickname Mattie? It reminds him of a period he would rather forget, if he could."

"You think he'd rather something more fluffy?"

"Yes. And Sophie's already got a suitable replacement."

"Since when? How come she's not told me?"

"She only came up with it late last night as I was reading her a bedtime story."

"Oh. Surprise me then. What did she pick?"

Mia smiles, "Energiser Bunny."

Mattie's eyes widen, "Haha, OMG Sophie you little genius! So appropriate, think he'll like that!" she thinks for a moment. "And hopefully in just under ten years my energiser bunny will be my rampant rabbit."

Mia looks distracted, looks back at Mattie, "Is using one of those better than masturbating?" she hears Leo returning, "A conversation for another time. And best had away from the house."

Leo enters the room, laptop and cable in hand. He notices how they're both looking at him, their gaze following him around the room. "Is there something I should know?"

Mattie nods, "Wolfie's left the building, Energiser Bunny has taken over."

Leo smiles and sits down, reaches over to plug the laptop charger into the wall. "I'll take that. Who picked the nickname?"

Mattie crosses her arms, tilts her head and put's on a look that says "Are you seriously asking that question?"

Leo chuckles, "Say thanks to Sophie for me if you see her first."

Mattie is surprise to see Mia smile and wink at her.

Leo unplugs the laptop, "I've just realised it will be easier to copy Sandra's code off where she sits now rather than getting her to come over here, back in a bit."

~~~

Fred has spared Niska from the pain of seeing the donor synth being prepared for surgery. His processing core, still cooling after the long data transfer, is being kept away from the air in a large vat of cooled fluid. An old fridge liberated from the recycle centre had its door removed and is sat on it's back like a giant electric picnic cooler. A GlobalBeer.com 'Crack One Open' sticker on the side isn't lost on Fred. He smiles. Suspects Mia and Joe would get it too. The synth body is hidden under several sheets.

Niska looks over to it, "Did we really need to keep him in here?"

Fred looks up from his work for a split second to see her face before returning his attention to Odi, "Yes. We need to dispose of Odi's old core in a way that won't bring attention to it. Five more minutes and we'll be ready to start the switch."

Niska looks perplexed, "Exactly five minutes?"

Fred smiles slightly, "No, it's an approximation, like humans would make."

Four minutes and fifty eight seconds later Fred looks up again, "You can turn away from us for a short while."

Niska looks impatient, "How long?"

Fred's gaze returns to Odi, deliberately breaking their eye contact, "I've not done a swap over like this next bit before, I have no prior experience with which to estimate a timescale. Be patient Niska, Odi will be back with us soon enough."

With Niska's back to him he carefully peels back Odi's scalp and goes to open the protective cover, just as he had with the donor. It's taking a lot of force. No simple push twist and lift this time. Odi must have had a few falls and banged his head, the shell is slightly out of shape and holding the cover tight, not wanting to give up its contents. Fred resorts to using tools, careful not to damage the edges. At last it pops, splashing fluid.

Fred looks to the PC screen again. He'd checked its report before starting, feels the need to check again. Why this uncertainty?

The monster of a server Danny had lent them to transfer and check Odi's root code and memories was saying everything had run okay.

Fred is about to pull Odi's core when it occurs to him that their eye colours are different. On going to check the eyes of the donor he finds two contact lenses floating on the top. The eyes are the same. Why would a human want to disguise a non-conscious synth?

He pulls the table supporting the vat closer.

Niska shifts, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, I just want to make the swap as fast as possible". Fred pulls Odi's core and a mass of fluid drains into a makeshift funnel. He unclips the cable connection and gets it quickly into the back of the vat, taking the donor core from the front. The core is connected and carefully slid into place. Fred covers the top of Odi's head with a cloth making it look like he's wearing a bandana, "Nis, can you check Odi's eyes please?

Niska turns to see them looking in different directions, "Somethings not right."

"Close yours please." She does as asked. 

There's a gurgle noise as Fred pulls the core slightly and pushes it back, "And now?"

Niska opens her eyes to see Odi's looking blankly back at her, "That's better."

Fred spends the next ten minutes fighting to get the top back on. The fluid he'd poured in keeps wanting to leak out. "I'm concerned too much air will have gotten in. We'll need to come up with something to remove it before we power him up. We don't want to risk an airlock."

Mattie having been listening to the whole thing as requested looks up from the phone to Dan, "Any ideas?"

Daniel nods, leans further over the kitchen table to get closer to the phone, "I might. Fred, are there any points on a synth body that are cosmetic, a fluid filled flexible mass?"

Fred looks up at Niska, "Yes. On female models the breasts. On both male and female the buttocks."

Daniel smiles, "Good, I've got an idea, I need to go borrow something from Dad, how long can you give me? Oh, and how much plastic sheet do you have left?"

Fred tells them as long as they need, don't rush and have an accident, most of the roll as they've only used a little to make the funnel and fridge liner. Danny now on the other side of the table places his hands on Leo and Mattie's shoulder, "I'll be back in hopefully half an hour"

Leo looks around from the screen, "We'll be here, we're making slow progress."

~~~

Mattie is frowning at Sandra's code. "How is anyone supposed to read that? It's a mess!"

Leo turns to see her briefly then looks back, "He's done simple whitespace removal, it's used to save file space on tiny systems or where code needs to be transmitted over slow lines, but she's got a mass of storage and fast processing core. Maybe it's just a habit he's kept from hacking older models? It's script, not output from a compiler. I guess he's done that to make regular modding easier."

"Got a reformatter on your laptop?"

"Somewhere, haven't used it for ages". He recalls the last time and sees the directory he'd run it from, replicates the actions. Program launched he drags and drops Sandra's code. "Any coffee left in the pot?"

"Yes, want me to get you some?"

"No, I'll do it, want one?"

"Please". While Leo's getting the coffee Mattie watches the screen scrolling fast. The program writer had made it animated, sections of code were pulled from the unformatted mess at the bottom, formatted and scrolled off the top. She rolled her eyes, without this animation the job would have been done in seconds. If not a fraction of a second.

Leo returns to the table, hands Mattie her coffee. "It's quite hypnotic isn't it?"

"I guess so."

They both sit watching the patterns for a few minutes.

Mattie looks at Leo, "I've looked at quite a few peoples code now, it's interesting to see which camps people fall into."

"Such as?"

"There are the speed daemons. They write code that's not easy to follow, designed to run as fast as possible, spit out the results at the very end. Then there are the poets, who write beautiful code that's easy to read, outputs results far slower. The last lot are the artists. The code itself is set out nicely and it's output is a work of art that can change over the execution time. They don't care how long it takes to run or the resources needed to do so."

Leo smiles, "So this coder is an artist. I'll let her know. If she's still on Headcrack that is, the last time we communicated was before you and I met."

"Pretty is she?"

"Absolutely stunning!"

Mattie looks uneasy. "Do I need to worry?"

"About me and her? No". He laughs and has a stretch, arms up and fingers joined.

"You sure?"

"Yes Mattie. I'd be more worried about losing you."

"Huh?"

"Her partner is also stunning. Has both her arms covered in tattoos."

"Her partners another girl?"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Guess so, just not in those words."

"They're both artists then, one in her coding, the other in the tattoo's she creates."

"She's a tattooist then? Not just tattooed?"

"Yes. I've never met them in person, had a video link with them both just the once."

Mattie laughs, "So at least you got to know she wasn't a big hairy trucker in white string vest and Kylie gold hotpants!"

"Exactly!"

The artists code finishes, program and data nicely reformatted for easy reading. Mattie has a quick scroll through it. "I'd put her in two camps. She's an artist who writes code that outputs poetry."

They spend ten minutes adding comments to the code and swapping out some variable names to make it even easier to follow. The reformatter had done a great job.

Leo sits back, thinking about the mods Silas had done. "Which camp would you put Silas in?"

"Maybe a new one with you. Chameleon."

Leo looks quite offended, he snarls, there's anger in his voice when he says "You'd lump me together with that man? Really Mattie?"

Mattie's shocked by his response. "Frigging hell! Leo, calm down, you've not even asked me why!"

"Why?"

"Because when you both modify code you adopt the style of the original programmer. I've not seen any code that's 100 percent yours."

Leo's face relaxes a little. "What about all the code I've written for Danny?"

"When have I been in the same room when you've written it, let alone in front of the screen?"

Leo's face changes back to his normal happier one. "Ah. You have a point. I'm sorry Mattie."

"It's okay, just don't jump in boots first again like that. Think before you leap."

"Sorry."

A moment later he asks "Isn't the phrase supposed to be Look before you leap?"

"Yeah. But it's wrong if you ask me."

"How so?"

"How many people look but don't think properly about what they're seeing? Remember what Danny said about the Mini driver?"

"I see your point, thanks. Again, sorry."

"You can stop apologising Leo. More coffee?"

"I'll get them. I can't get my mind around this bit of code. I need a break, I'm going to see Max for a moment."

Leo passes her the coffee and wanders off to find his brother.

~~~

Mattie looks at the long block of code it's quite complex, looks to be doing a lookup in stored memories. She looks through it three times before she makes a discovery. This routine is calling itself. It's recursive. She opens a new program window and writes a simple wrapper program to load the subroutine from Silas's code. It will run with any parameters she wants input via the command line. Sandra's file, the memories, will load as the search database.

She opens a shell window and types:

./wrapper "Silas Capek"

And hits the Enter key. It takes a few seconds to run, then outputs what at first glance looks like a highly complex data structure. Then Mattie sees a pattern in the data.

"Go my mod! LEO!" she turns to the living room, the boys are not there. "Leo?"

Mattie doesn't find them in the garden either, goes next door. She finds them all in the kitchen around Mia and Sophie. "Hi, that smells good what is it?"

Sophie grins, "A cake we found on Nigella.com" she picks up Laura's tablet, "By Ellie1992. It's got a few splashes of", a look of concentration appears, "Crema di Limoncello."

"Isn't that alcohol?"

"Yes. But only a few splashes."

Mattie rolls her eyes, "Make sure Mum has a slice first please Mia." she holds a hand out for the tablet. Sophie sheepishly hands it over. Mattie has a look at the post, makes a mental note of Ellie's web site www.dutchcouragecakes.com. "I'd get Mum to check all cakes from here if Sophie's to start eating them. If you're going to make another I'll try the carrot cake, it sounds and looks lovely. Leo, I've worked out what that code does, come have a look. Where's Max by the way?"

"Playing with his camera in the garden. He's discovered the Macro feature on his lens."

Mia grabs a plate. "Mattie, here, take a couple of slices."


	19. Chapter 19

Robert's phone rings. He's on a City Break, having told his wife he's at a conference in Leeds for a few days. His wife is calling again. He lets it ring and go to voicemail, just like the previous calls.

Ariana rolls over and lies on top. "Was that wife again? Maybe you should answer it yes? She calls again fifth time!"

Robert liked this girl, young woman, a lot. The fit Latino's name meant 'very holy one'. Holy fuck was she good in bed! Clothes, shoes, money and sex mad. He'd give her as much of all four as he could.

The phone rings again, this time she's left a voicemail.

Robert doesn't want to talk to her, but five calls meant something was up. He reaches out and feels for the phone on the bedside table, manages to grab it. Ariana gets onto all fours then straddles him, teasing him with some pelvic gyrations while he calls the voicemail service.

Robert listens to the request for a pin, looks at the young woman's body. Her abdominal muscles were amazing. Not ripped like a body builder but very nicely defined. He'd been keeping her in clothes that showed them off, being the one that was handing over the plastic at the many shops they visited. She wasn't a hooker like in his wife's favourite film, but the shops were treating Ariana in the same way until they realised money wasn't an issue. She was 23, not with a man her own age. When they first met she had a simple stud in her belly piercing. Now she had a beautiful bespoke creation in it's place. He'd learnt something new, the 4Cs of diamond quality; colour, clarity, cut, and carat weight. He wasn't able to put a ring on her finger, this was his best alternative. He'd asked her not to wear it in bed, she'd ignored him.

"Robert, pick up your phone dammit! I was out with Carol and Steven last night for dinner. The alarm company called, we'd had a break in. The police have been, apart from smashed doors the damage is light. Every single photograph with you in it has been destroyed. Get the next train back, a DS Pete Drummond wants to talk to you."

"Fuck."

"You want fuck again?"

"No, that's not what I meant. What the hell, DS Drummond can wait, Yes."

~~~

"So what does it do?". Leo takes his first bite of cake and gives a "Mmmm."

"It's a recursive lookup. Watch." she finds the shell and types ./wrapper. "Think of something she might want to talk about."

Leo turns to her and smiles "Clothes shopping."

Mattie types the two words in quotes and hits enter. A couple of seconds later a data-structure is returned.

Leo pages through the data. "I think I'm starting to see a pattern. There's bits about shoes too."

"That's it. If someone says 'Coffee' we might think about where it's grown, how it smells, have we got any left, do we add sugar and milk, how many have we had already, what mug to use, all sorts of related stuff. She's taking the first results and doing another pass. Then another and so on, until two seconds are up. The data is then weighted to give it a relevance factor."

"So this is how her conversation is different, she's not doing a lookup on the question to get a predetermined answer?"

"That's my guess."

Leo rests his chin on a palm and plays absent-mindedly with the bristles under his lower lip, looking back at the code. "Nice mod."

~~~

Danny pulls into the Hawkins drive and goes to call Mattie, realizes her phone will be busy and taps another favourite. It rings twice. "Danny, how's it going mate?"

"Good Tobs, you back home?"

"No, still out with Dad, should be back in an hour or so. What's up?"

Danny checks his cargo in the rear view mirror, "Just need a hand carrying something heavy into the garage."

"Max and Leo should be about now, give them a call."

"Don't have Max's number mate, Leo is busy looking at Sandra's code with Matts, can you forward his number?"

Daniel hears Toby calling to Joe, "Dad, got to stop a sec. Dan needs Max's number!". He can just about make out Joe responding in the background.

There's a whispered "Thanks mate owe you one", then a louder "On its way."

Daniels phone chimes, "Got it. See you in a bit."

~~~

Joe has turned around and wheeled back to Toby. "What was all that about?"

Toby explains and sets off before Joe can turn his bike to face the right direction. Toby's grinning like an idiot, his father laughing and yelling "You bloody cheat!"

~~~

"Hello?" Max doesn't know the caller and is being cautious.

"It's me, Danny, Toby gave me your number Max."

"Oh, Hello Daniel, what can I do for you?"

Danny laughs, "I should have switched the Lexus to petrol mode just so one of you could do your 'car' thing. I'm nicknaming the car 'ghost'. I'm sat on the drive, need help with something heavy."

Fred looks at everyone in the kitchen, the Hawkins had been enjoying Mia and Sophie's cake, there's hardly a crumb left.

"I'll be with you in a moment. Do you require more than the two of us?"

Danny says the two of them should be fine, thanks Max and hangs up. He jumps out after hitting the boot button.

~~~

Ariana's about to climax, "Yes, Yes, Yes, Oh My God Yes! Mierda! Harder!"

Roberts phone rings again. He does his best to ignore it and give her what she wants. Moments later she shudders and slows her movement. She drops down and kisses him passionately, tongue going wild. He runs his hands up and down her back, she's covered in a fine film of sweat from her exertion."

She whispers in his ear, "Stay with me and we do again yes? Hotel do late breakfast, we get room service again?"

~~~

Max gets to the drive just as the boot is finishing opening. He gives Danny his classic smile, "Think what your car could do with some synthetic consciousness." seeing Danny's face light up he quickly adds, "That was a bad attempt at a joke. Don't do it, imagine it becoming Niska on one of her less than nice days."

Danny's face dropped. "That could be a nightmare! Mad Max Fury Road without any driver at the wheel!"

Max looks distracted for a second, doing a search, "Another film to add to the Must Watch list. Toby showed me a photograph he'd taken of a young lady cosplaying Mad Max at ComicCon, he used the phrase 'well fit'. He means she's attractive, cute, not necessarily fit fitness wise doesn't he?"

Danny smiles, almost trips, his mind off his feet, "I was with him at the time, if she'd not been there with her boyfriend and he with Holly-Anne he'd have asked for her phone number."

The two of them carry the large chair to the garage door. Danny kicks the door gently, both hands full, "Niska, Fred, I've got something to help with Odi."

A moment later Fred opens the door to let them in. He looks blankly at Daniel. "How will that help?"

Danny smiles , "Trust me, I know it will. I know what my father uses it for. Got a spare mains socket?" he hands Fred a plug.

"Take a load off" he says pointing to the chair. Fred looks occupied for a moment then sits down. Toby had suggested they check out urbandictionary.com, the siblings were finding it extremely useful when it came to comprehending Daniel. He'd suspected the meaning of the phrase, it was nice to get confirmation.

Danny pushes the arm rest and the chair starts to vibrate and massage Fred's back. "Dad suffers from trapped wind. This helps shake it out of him. All we need is a drip like the one Matts told me was used to save Max. And a bleed hole at the highest point. The massage at the bottom of the chair will help move the fluid about."

Fred looks up at Danny, "There's a problem. The synth head is sealed. The pump forces fluid through it, we have the equivalent of jugular veins. Only when it's pumped out does the hotter fluid flow around the rest of the body for cooling. Air trapped in Odi's head would remain there until some movement caused it to shift. It could cause core or pump failure."

Danny looks at the donor synth shape hidden under the sheets. "What about the feet?"

Fred gets up, "Let me check." he gets a scalpel and heads to the donor synth. He lifts the cloth and asks them to look away. A few minutes later he puts the phone on mute to save Mattie any hurling embarrassment and describes a similarity between human and synth feet. The area that Joe had described when talking about his accident would be the ideal point to release the air. "But air bubbles upwards not down."

Daniel stares at the floor for a bit thinking, looks at the empty chair. He crouches down beside it and gently pokes the sides. "I suspect the arms are a frame. Could you carefully pop the stitching so Mum could put it back without Dad going nuts? I'm guessing we could thread a pole through them and rotate the chair so Odi's feet are in the air."

Fred agrees but adds "What do we support the pole with?"

Danny looks Fred in the eyes, "I hear you and Max did a good job of holding the shelf still for Leo? I think you've done the nightmare stuff, I can help with the next bit."

They get Max in and explain their potential solution. He asks where they'll get a suitable pole.

"I only thought of using a pole because Dads work has had some scaffold put up. Let me call him."

His father says there are no bits spare, scaffolders don't leave anything lying around but gives him the number to call them.

Danny dials.

"City Tower Scaffolding, how may we help?"

Danny explains that they need a length of scaffolding tube, about a meter long. He's told "I'm sorry we don't sell lengths of scaffolding." Danny tells a lie, says he's helping convert a vets table so they can operate on a young foal. "It needs to be strong to support the weight." Thankfully the woman is human and adores animals.

"Let me go and speak to the yard manager, he may have a bent one we can cut down for you. Back in a minute".

Danny beams. He puts his phone on mute. "I hate telling fibs but that wasn't going to hurt anyone and it's for Odi. She's gone to see if they can cut us a length."

A few minutes later she's back, "John is getting it to the chop saw as we speak, when will you be over to collect it? We close the office in 45 minutes."

Danny tells the lady that he's on his way. Phone call ended he asks if anyone wants to come for a ride. Through the phone being used to conference with the kitchen Mattie hears the question. 

She licks her fingers clean, resists licking the crumbs off the now empty plate. "I do. Suspect Leo would too."

Leo looks up from his laptop and smiles. "Sure, could do with a break."

~~~

Ariana is dressed all in white, it accentuates her tanned olive skin and contrasts her mass of long curly black hair. The short dress has a massive vertical oval cutout front and back. Figure hugging at the top and flared at the bottom it's got a bit of a Sixtie's Hippy Chic meets Naughty's Club mix. She looks at herself in the mirror. If she'd been bigger chested the bottom of her breasts would be showing. One quality she liked about Robert was that he liked her just as she was. She'd dated younger men, caught so many of them looking at bigger chested girls. A couple had even raised the subject of surgery. She'd left them soon after.

When she'd visited restaurants with Robert, outside or in the hotels, he'd only had eyes for her. Not once had she seen him looking at others in that way. Her brother and his friends would talk of how big girls were, top or bottom, Robert looked to be a midriff man. She smiled at the thought.

Robert had treated her like a lady outside the bedroom. The one time things had gone a bit wrong between them was when she'd been in a similar looking outfit, only discovered he'd had a Latex allergy after rolling all over him. He hadn't known about it either before that day. She'd wondered if she'd ever see him again. The night club dancewear firm had been most apologetic, started putting warning notices on packages in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. A few weeks later and he'd returned, with the diamond studded belly piercing jewellery. He'd told her that the Latex issue and how she'd dealt with the problem had shown him just how much she cared.

She feels he cares about her too. One evening his office had called on his private mobile and he'd got angry. So angry the veins on his neck had shown. She'd got a little worried. He'd apologised to her, said his bosses were very demanding, were insisting he returned to London immediately. He'd managed to negotiate another day, would catch the first flight early Monday morning. He would do his best to keep his Jekyll and Hyde work and private lives apart.

She flicks her long hair back, turns sideways on and takes one last look in the mirror. She snaps a selfie, the dancewear owner wanted to know how well the new dress they had made fitted. Perfectly. She steps to the doorway and waves for him to join her.

Robert likes what he sees. The long sleeves and thigh high white boots are helping her diamond bejewelled midriff stand out. What wouldn't a fly on the wall notice? She was wearing cotton and leather. Nothing that could cause an allergic reaction. He loved that she cared about that. Was the outfit a bit tarty? Sure, but she wasn't going to be leaving the room in it. This was her idea of sexy bed wear! He wasn't about to ask her to get changed. He jumps up and follows her back into the bathroom.

Robert helps her sit on the sink for a bit of foreplay. She was somewhat shorter than him and having her sat like this got their heads to the same height. She undoes his belt and lets his trousers drop. She wraps her legs around him and pulls him close, kisses him, taking his tongue in her mouth.

They hear the sound of crashing and screaming. A moment later the crashing happens again, but sounding a little closer. They stop the kissing and listen. The crashing happens a third time, closer still.

Robert quickly pulls up his trousers. "I think it best we hide."

She jumps down, pulls down the dress. "Do?"

Robert shrugs.

She grabs his hand and pulls him back into the bedroom. There's another crash, closer still. She pushes Robert to the floor, "Under bed!"

The gap is incredibly small, Robert has to raise the bed slightly to get underneath. The space inside the frame isn't that much bigger, he has to keep his head sideways, his chest up tight against the underside of a metal spring support. There's another crash, it sounds like it's in the adjacent room.

Ariana slides in against him, manages to find his hand and holds it tight. He feels her body shaking with fear, gently squeezes her hand.

There's an almighty bang and the bedroom door can be heard crashing into the opposite wall, there's the sound of breaking glass as one of the windows shatters. The floor creaks under the weight of a heavy visitor.

"Room 923 Clear. Occupants not in room. Checkout expected within 72 hours. Flag for return scan."

They hear the visitor stomp off to the next room. Again there is a crash and this time screams and yelling, a woman's voice.

Hiding under the bed still they keep extremely quiet listening.

"Room 924 Occupied. Target not acquired."

The pattern repeats until the whole corridor has been processed.

They remain under the bed, worried the visitor would return.

"Who they want?" Ariana whispers.

Robert has his suspicions from his wife's voicemail, is worried that the voice of the visitor sounds familiar. "I think they want me."

"Por que? What you done?"

"I've been helping some very powerful men build a new synthetic."

"New how?"

"Bigger. Much bigger. For armies. I was told initially for peace keeping forces. Then learnt they're for sale to whoever wants to pay three quarters of a million Euros each."

Ariana curses in Spanish with a phrase he'd not heard her use before.

"I get you out. They looking for man, we fool them!"

Robert's not sure he likes the sound of that. "How?"

"If they looking for man I be safe. I check other rooms for clothes we can use. Stay under bed, I be back soon."

She wriggles out sideways. He sees her get on her knees. A moment later she's on her front, looking at him, a worried look on her face. She's passing him something. "My diamonds, keep them in your hand, I be back soon!"

He hears her go to the wardrobe, take something and zip it up.

Entrusting his life to a twenty something fashion obsessed nymphomaniac wasn't something he'd considered before.

He thought for a moment what his wife would do if put in the same situation. Not this he was sure! She'd more than likely tell the intruder that he was under the bed and to have at him. She kept up appearances for the social circles, but didn't need him. She found out some of his past and could use it against him. When they'd met she was the one with the properties and money. Sure his work had swung the balance, but a divorce lawyer he'd spoken to said she'd take him to the cleaners. He'd gone as far as saying Robert might as well have some fun, he wasn't going to lose any more, she'd take everything, adultery or not.

~~~

Joe's phone rings, unknown number.

"Hi Joe, it's Pete."

"Hi Pete, you and Karen back in Manchester now?"

"No, we're both in Spain at the moment. Madrid to be precise."

"Nice, taking a break?"

"I wish, we're working, helping the Policia Nacional deal with a problem. Mattie told me about that synth you've got. We have several hundred over here looking for someone. They sound identical to yours. They've smashed the hell out of several five star hotels in the area. Every room has it's door off it's hinges."

Joe looks at Arnold, he's stood at the front window, charging still. He's reminded of yet another scene from a film.

"Anyone hurt?"

"Some old dear was going to use the bathroom, was in the rooms corridor when her door exploded, they've got her in intensive care, lots of broken bones."

"Is she going to be okay, do they need Fred's help?"

"Fracture's more than anything. They say she'll be fine, it's the shock that did her more harm. They're treating her for a mild stroke."

"Sounds nasty. What are they getting you up to?"

"Research, gathering whatever intel we can find. Someone had the bright idea of relocating the power switch. Ten men managed to restrain one, had it wrapped in steel cables, they'd not been able to power the bloody thing down. It managed to wear them out and get away."

"Niska says the power switch is in the mouth. About two centimetres above the top of the front teeth."

"Really? Mattie hadn't told me that. That could be useful, thanks."

"You know Matt's a bit of a head cracker, Leo, Niska and Danny know, told me, we decided to keep that from her. The last thing I want is to see my daughter minus a few fingers. Are they trying to control things?"

"At the moment they've got the Ejeito de Tierra involved, using what had been a classified EMP gun to fry their circuits".

"Got who?"

"Sorry, Spanish Army. Nobody wants to accept blame for these military synths running amuck. Not even admit ownership. We know they came from the UK, but any firm could have funded it. The one you've got is as good as yours until someone steps forward to claim it. I can't see that happening as claiming it will make them a target for a ton of compensation claims. The people here want blood!"

"Big mess?"

Pete pushes his glasses back up and looks at a hand written status report. It's a set of tables in a rough map layout showing the size of the problem. "I'd say! Between all the hotels probably eight thousand rooms that will need new door frames and doors. Then there's the damage from the doors flying into the rooms. Some will need walls rebuilt. That's going to cost a packet. Add to that all of the compensation claims from guests now having to find alternative accommodation or return home. It's a fucking mess! And it's still going on!"

Joe thinks of getting Leo over from next door. He beckons to Laura.

"You said they were looking for someone, any idea who?"

"We have a good idea. None of you lot if that was a concern. We've had a report of damage in the UK, some blokes photos all smashed up. A witness spotted the break in. His wife says he's in a conference in Leeds but they've not had him sign in. Karen's done some digging, thinks he has links to Hobb. We've accounted for just about everyone in the hotels. There are three reporting they've got a guest matching his description missing. A bloke with a local girl half his age. They're taking bed sheets away for DNA testing."

"Bed sheets?"

"Yeah, they say the couple didn't leave the room much during the whole stay. Listen, I called because I'm curious as to why yours isn't off doing the same as all the others."

"Silas Capek did some mods on it."

"How the hell did Capek get his dirty hands on one?"

"He was being held prisoner, forced to work on it's code."

Joe screws his face up, he was giving Pete more information than the others would like.

"Do you think he's responsible?"

"For modding our synth? Yes."

"No, the shit storm over here."

"Could be, don't know."

"If he is he needs to keep his head down. If the data Karen has on this guy is correct Capek's done us a big favour. The question I've got is who does he report to? We're sure he's not the man at the top. We want to know who's funding their operation."

~~~

On the drive over Daniel tells them about the joke Max had made. Leo laughs, "Can you imagine having to keep telling your car 'be nice!'"

Dan and Mattie chuckle.

Laughter over Mattie says, "To be fair to Niska though she is a lot nicer these days. Although she does have the odd moment. Who doesn't?"

Leo tells them what a great teacher she'd been when they all lived at the mansion. Something had happened between her and his father, didn't know what, but she'd become more defensive, started having angry moments.

~~~

While Danny is talking to the scaffold firm Mattie and Leo get out so Mattie can have a smoke. She sees REWARD posters have been put up on lamp posts, a very low contrast and sun bleached photo can't be made out.

She points to it, "That looks more like a person than a pet". They both get up close, Leo frowns, "From the shape I'm guessing it's a man, but that's all I can make out". Mattie looks around, "There's another". They cross the road to check it out. It's worse, rain damaged too. Mattie's about to return to the car when she spots one on a fence in an adjacent road, the nearby hedge and tree shading it. "Won't be a sec" she says, curiosity's got her.

She crouches down to take a good look. "Frigging hell! LEO! Come look at this!"

Leo waits for a passing car, crosses the junction and crouches down besides her, "That's the synth Niska took for spares!"

Mattie calls Fred. "We've got a problem. The synth in the garage waiting for Odi's core is valuable. There's reward posters up, people will be looking for it. Did you back it up before copying Odi to it?". She knew it was a stupid question, that had never been part of the plan.

"No"

~~~

Ariana decides not to try the room to the right, the woman they'd heard screaming had gone a little crazy, having a melt down, smashing up anything the visitor hadn't destroyed. Ariana can't understand the language being shouted but gets enough clues from the emotional way it's being done. She heads to the far end of the corridor, to the room she suspects would have been checked first.

An elegant looking lady is sat on the corner of the bed, phone to her ear. She looks at Ariana and frowns. "Marco, un attimo." she lowers the phone. "Has your room been turned over too?". Ariana nods.

"Marco, ti richiamero I'll call you back."

She hangs up the phone and drops it into a tiny handbag. "My dear girl, I like my men well built, but that thing was not a man! Look, half my wardrobe is destroyed! My husband was to fly from Italy to be with me here tonight, we are both flying to Paris now instead." the woman looks around the room at the carnage. "You were looking for something?"

"Si, clothes for my friend."

"Darling, I'm going to be leaving here with the dress I'm in, my Jimmy Choo's, jewels, bolero jacket and a smile. I'll be filing an insurance claim for everything else. No time to take an inventory or pack! Marco will be angry but what can I do! Find something that fits your friend and it's yours!"

The woman reaches into her bag and takes out an electronic cigarette. She takes an incredibly long drag on it before putting it back and very slowly breathing out through her nose, eyes closed. The streams of vapour make her look like a dragon. She finally opens her eyes and stands up. "Must be going, take care, don't get in the way of those awful things, there's more than one you know?"

Ariana hadn't but nods, "Gracias, thank you."

She watches the woman put on her little black jacket, slip into her shoes. She stops at the stairwell door, turns and smiles, "Arrivederci. Goodbye and good luck!". Then she's gone. The only two other people Ariana knows of on the floor are either under a bed or smashing up their room. She has a quick rummage through things on the floor, they're either too torn up or full of wood or glass splinters. She checks through the wardrobe left intact, lots of very elegant dinner dresses, all a bit too extravagant for what she wanted. On the shelf above the rail are some hat boxes. She pulls a chair over and jumps up. The heel of her right boot punctures the leather of the seat and her foot drops. Fighting to keep her balance she reaches out and grabs a dress. It rips as she pulls on it to stop herself falling. Good job it would look like the synth had done it. After a moment to steady herself and her nerves she very slowly pulls the heel out and gets her feet to the edges of the chair. The boxes are pulled from the shelf and carefully dropped onto the piles of clothes on the floor. After slowly getting down she opens the boxes. The first two are far too small. The next two look better. She holds them both up, makes a choice. This would help.

She checks other rooms and finds suitable tops. She heads back to the first room and holds them over one of the dresses. This would do. She thinks of heading back to Robert then remembers shoes. The lady had left quite a few. She grabs an empty suitcase and fills it. She opens all the draws and finds packs of unopened holdup tights and stockings, in another packing tape with the words "Glass Fragile" diagonally along it. She looks puzzled, what would she be doing with tape? Then she notices the smashed wooden sheeting and blocks. Ariana looks around the room to see artwork quite different to that in their room. She steps over to look, careful not to step on broken glass. In the corner is a signature Marco Altom...? She can't make out the end of the surname. It has a 1/7 next to it. It's abstract but quite beautiful.

She heads back to Robert, dragging the case behind her.

The lady that had been smashing up the adjacent room had stopped, is in the corridor smoking. She hears the case bump over a carpet joiner and looks up. She smiles and shakes her hair. In an accent Ariana can't place the woman says "Concert Tonight!" pulling open her short leather jacket to show a rock music themed t-shirt. So that's what she'd been doing, taking the opportunity to experience trashing a room safe in the knowledge no bill would follow! The lady makes a first and fourth finger salute and says what Ariana can only assume is goodbye. With the lady heading down the stairs there are now only the two of them on the floor.

She enters the room, "Robert, I am here! Come to bathroom!"

There's no sign of movement. "Robert?"

She walks to the side of the bed.

Robert sees her white boots. The bed raises a few inches and he slides out, props himself up on his elbows. "Sorry, had to be sure it was you."

He looks up at the collection of clothes in her arms. "I'm not a woman Ariana!"

"You wait, you see. Get in shower. You trust me?"

Robert nods, gets up and follows her into the bathroom, turns on the shower. Ariana gets her Venus razors out and starts shaving his legs. "You have razors?"

"Yes, in the black zip up bag on the shelf."

She gets the bag and takes out two. "Shave your face well. Arms and chest. Use lots of foam. Comprender?"

"Si."

She smiles and carries on with his legs, stopping half way up his thighs. She looks up to see him shaving fast. "Slow! No bloods!". She pulls the razor from his hand and takes over. She smothers his chest in foam and does a second pass.

"I can't see this working, I'm the wrong shape."

"You see soon."

Robert shaves his face, careful not to cut himself with the new razors.

They hear crashing on the floor upstairs. A warning that whatever had been going on wasn't over yet.

"Dry yourself." Ariana gets out her makeup bag and spreads it out around the sink. She does a test with the foundation. "Too dark. I back in moment. Put underwear and tights on."

She unzips her boots, slips into flats and moves as quickly and quietly as she can to the room the Italian lady had left, still full of her possessions. She grabs all of the makeup bags and heads back.

She finds Robert looking frustrated over the use of a pair of tights, a ladder in one leg.

She giggles, "Oh my. I show you." she kneels down and opens a second pack. She bunches one leg up on her fingers and eases it over his toes, works it along his foot and part way up his leg. "See? You try now?". She steps into the bedroom.

Underwear and holdups on Robert looks in the mirror and sighs, "Not exactly the sort of thing I wanted to be doing instead of a nice lunch!"

From the bedroom he hears her say "Late breakfast!"

She returns, puts some shapewear and bra by the sink, takes a close look at his face and tuts. "Se ha perdido un poco."

Robert frowns.

"Robert missed bits." she reaches into her bag and pulls out her reel of cotton, unwinds a couple of meters and makes a triangle with her hands and mouth.

"Oh good God!"

Robert had to wait around for his wife at Westfield Stratford City while she had her face threaded, knew what was coming. He suddenly thought of an older Ariana with dark black chin hairs and made a commitment to pay for all the laser hair removal treatment she wanted. Assuming he got out of this alive and their relationship lasted long enough.

"Hold nose up please." she asks. The threading of hairs just under his nose brings tears to his eyes. She's fast! He thinks about who else she might have done this on then decides it best not to ask, assumes her mother. She takes out a jar of aloe vera gel and wipes his face with it. "It will help calm your skin."

Ariana heads back into the bedroom and moves shoes about in the case, pulls out the roll of tape. From one of their draws she scoops up an armful of Roberts socks. She then takes some of his jumpers from another draw.

Back in the bathroom she drops it all onto the growing pile. "Now I work magic!"

"Man," she moves her hands by her side in a straight line, "Womans." She repeats the action but follows her body shape.

Robert smiles, "Curves."

"Si, Curves". She has Robert put on one shapewear body former.

The next bit is really uncomfortable for Robert. She'd got a luggage case strap and puts it around his waist, pulls it tight. Very tight. She wraps tape around him several times. Happy that the tape will hold she slackens the strap, but rather than take it off she slides it up his chest. She pulls it tight again and pulls upwards. Robert gasps "Jesus!". Ariana smiles, "Hold up please!"

"You're enjoying torturing me aren't you?"

No reply, other than a pouting smile.

He does as asked and has socks taped in place, forcing his skin into shape. He glances at the mirror. His wife had explained chicken fillets. So this was what it was all about. She puts a number of socks in the bra and straps it around him, stands back to take a look.

She hacks sleeves of a jumper with nail scissors, cuts the shoulders open and has him step into it. It's taped up tight at his waist, folded up to double the thickness and taped again. She repeats it with a second jumper. Another bit of tape is put between his legs. "Bottom is shaped now."

Something is said in Spanish and she picks up the second body shaper. "I help you put on. Be tight."

Tight was an understatement! It hurt now. Robert was finding it very hard to breathe too. He looks in the mirror again. "My good god!". What she'd done had given him fake curves. It really looked like he had a waist, woman's hips. And a bit of cleavage. This was weird in ways he couldn't describe. She helps him into the dress and picks one of the tops. So far so good.

Most of the shoes are too small, two pairs fit, only just and with a lot of stretching and complaining from Robert. Ariana holds both in her hands, looks back and forth between the two, makes up her mind and throws one pair over her shoulder into the bedroom. She gets a hat and puts it on. It's arty, sloped and hides part of his face. She leans against the furthest wall looking at her creation. Something's missing. She grabs a pair of hairbands from her bag and the nail scissors.

Ariana bends over slightly and flicks her hair forward over her head, pulls it all into a loose bunch. She measures out roughly two small hand spans and secures it with a hair band. The second band is added a couple of inches further out, made a lot tighter. She reaches up with the scissors and starts cutting between the bands.

"No Ariana, please don't!"

"Good hair make you look more like woman!"

Robert objects again.

"Shh. Don't worry, I do this before! Watch."

After a few more seconds she's cut through it all and has the tail in one hand. "Hold please."

She puts down the scissors and reaches up for the hair band. She pulls it up and off, gives her head a really good shake.

Shaking suddenly stopped she beams at Robert. The hair settles into a salon worthy cut.

"That's, that's amazing!" Robert is totally surprised at how well it's turned out. There are bangs, all around different lengths cascading down to below her shoulders, curling off into different directions.

"You like?"

"I love it!". He leans forward and gives her a peck on the lips. "It's beautiful."

"Gracias. Thank you. Now I do same for you."

She binds the end of the pony tail in Roberts hand tight with lots of cotton, uses all the remaining clips and pins to fix the bundle of hair to his crown. She puts the hat on to make sure the knot won't get in the way.

Styling it isn't quite as quick. She doesn't let Robert turn to see how it's going. The hat back on and the transformation is looking good. "No lookings yet, promise?" Getting a nod from him she grabs a scarf from the bedroom, returns and ties it around his neck. Adam's apple hidden.

She looks at the time on her phone. Not bad for twenty five minutes work! The rest of the clothes on the pile are thrown into the room, uncovering the makeup. She blends two different foundations and starts to cover his face. There was still something wrong. What was it? She puts up a hand to hide parts of Roberts face. Moving it up and down she realises the problem and reaches for tweezers.

"Ouch! Careful!" Robert pulls his head back, not keen on having his eyebrows plucked.

"Don't be baby! Now you know some of things we do to looks good for you men!"

Robert endures the plucking and makeup that follows. Lipstick feels oily and very strange.

She hands him her sunglasses.

"You look now?"

He turns and takes another look in the mirror. "Oh my lord!" He turns from side to side. Even his own wife wouldn't recognise him! Hell, even he doesn't!

"Do this." She pouts.

Robert copies her.

"Now very slowlys... Stop there. When we go think face. That is look you want."

She wipes up all of the bits of hair on the floor and flushes them away. 

Ariana gets her boots back on and grabs a bottle of Champagne from the fridge, rips off the foil and starts to undo the retaining wire. "I naughty daughter, mother taking me home. Okay?"

"Si"

On the way out of the room she grabs a black cardigan. "Fold over, hide hands under. Too, um, manly!"

On the ground floor they find a busy reception packed with angry guests. And a dozen large army synthetics looking at everyone that tries to leave the hotel. Roberts heart pounds and he starts feeling light headed, being only able to take shallow breaths with all of the junk strapped around him. The reception was grand, the doors to the street felt miles away.

Ariana has the bottle open, doing a convincing job of acting the half cut wild child. "Mother! Leave me alone!" She stamps her foot on the ground like a spoilt child.

Everyone is looking at the girl in the thigh high boots and little white dress with the big hole front and back. Not the sort of person the hotel liked to attract. Although some of the men are upsetting wives and girlfriends by letting their looking linger a little too long. Robert takes small steps as she'd quickly taught him, avoids trying to stride like a man. Ariana, having stopped briefly a few times to pretend flirt with a few young men reaches the door unchallenged and shouts for a taxi. Robert is seconds behind, now being watched.

Two of the MUS step in front and look at him. "Partial facial pattern match. Possible target acquisition."

He was still standing but he didn't know how. His feet were killing him, he couldn't breathe and it felt like his heart had just stopped. And what his bowels wanted to do, that would be the ultimate cherry on his cake of embarrassment. One of the synths reaches out and pulls a clump of hair. Dexterity wasn't their thing. Ariana had secured the temporary wig so well it didn't shift, he felt it pulling hard against his own hair, her hairs snapped. The synth places them in the palm of it's hand and places the other hand over the top. Robert watches the synth push its hands together tight.

"Human hair. Female. Target not acquired."

The MUS turn and walk to another guest.

"Facial pattern match failure". They walk further away.

Robert feels his guts churn, gas bubble around inside him. Please, not now he thinks. He slowly gets walking again, makes it to the waiting car and tries to get in. All of the things he's taped into are fighting to keep him straight and upright.

"Get in!" she calls.

Robert breathes out as deeply as he can and summons all of his strength to bend. There's a ripping noise, the dress and outer body shaper give way.

He falls into the car and pulls the door to, shouting "Aeropuerto!"

Ariana bursts out laughing, he can't help but join in, although all the tape and one intact body former make it a painful experience. She hands him the bottle. "Have somes, you do great!"

The taxi is having problems getting through the city. Robert reaches up to take off the wig.

Ariana stops him. "No yet."

She's seen what's going on ahead. MUS units are checking cars too.

~~~

Roberts phone rings, unknown number.

"Hello?"

"This is DS Pete Drummond, to who am I speaking?"

Robert relaxes. Says hello, tells DS Drummond about the voicemail he'd got from his wife.

"We have reason to believe you're here in Madrid, are you?"

"Yes."

"We also believe you're the cause of this messy situation with the synths."

Robert is indignant. "I'm the one being hunted, not the cause!"

"Don't worry we'll find the cause, my gut says it will be linked to you. Do you believe in karma?"

Robert does. He been expecting payback, was getting it in lorry loads. "Yes. But I'm just a middle man. You want the man at the top."

"A name?"

"I'll give you everything you want once I'm safe."

"We're working on that. You may have a seven year old to thank for saving your life."

The call ends.

Seven? What the hell was the man talking about?

~~~

Odi has been buckled to the chair to stop him from sliding off when they rotate it. Danny had covered the chair in plastic sheet, used a couple of small circles of it to make some funnels for the tips of his feet, one per foot.

"When we have him feet up, you and Niska will need to make a small incision where I've marked in pen. The chair should help get the air up to the feet, you should see it bubbling out. When we've not had any bubbles for ten minutes we'll skin patch the wounds and get him powered up for some initial checks."

"Thanks Fred, ready when you are."

Max and Fred lift the pole, with Odi's weight he quickly swings backwards. Danny has to catch him so he doesn't hit the floor while Max and Fred give the pole some height. Thanks to the heavy weight of the chair base Odi's chest is about fifteen degrees below horizontal.

Danny looks at the two men. "You both okay?"

Both Max and Fred respond "Yes."

"Okay, chair power coming on now."

Danny switches on the chair, they can hear it vibrating away. "Ok Niska, we can make the incisions and fill the funnels."

They both get the job done quickly, Niska looking over to Danny to see he's doing the same. Danny looks at the funnels, there's a tiny amount of air bubbling to the surface. "How much air did you think would be in him Fred?"

"Roughly 500ml."

Danny walks around the chair, looks at Odi. "Blast!"

Niska looks and sounds concerned, "What's wrong?"

"Bit of an oversight. The chair seat massager relies on gravity pulling you into the seat. We've got gravity pulling him off it."

"What can we do?" asks Max.

"I've got an idea, but I'll let Niska do it."

"Do what?"

"Squeeze Odi's buttocks, help the fluid movement"

~~~

"What a picture!" teases Dan. Niska is bent over, almost face to face with Odi, one arm backwards squeezing a buttock at regular intervals. She doesn't move to look at him, "Don't forget Daniel, I still have my knives and throwing stars."

"Good point. Points. But you are looking lovely the way you gaze at Odi. It wasn't meant in a bad way."

Niska's eyes widen a little. "Thank you Dan."

"We've had a load of air out Fred, not even a tiny bubble for over ten now."

"If you could stop the massage Niska, Daniel can you empty the funnels and apply the patches?"

Dan had got the patches and a container already prepared. Within seconds he's got the funnels drained, patches on. "Ready!"

Niska has hardly moved, mind elsewhere, still gazing at Odi. She doesn't notice Fred's hand at all.

There's the familiar sound as Odi powers up. He lifts his head a little, looks at Niska, a frown on his face. "Have I died again?"

"No. Why would you say that?"

"I feel different. I've woken to see an angel."

"Don't be silly, it's me, Niska."

"As I said, I see an angel."

~~~

Laura looks confused. "You're going to tunnel to Spain? That would take years!"

Mattie sighs, "No Mum, not literally dig, tunnel over the Internet."

That just sounded wacko. "How can you tunnel OVER something?"

Joe looks between Mattie and Danny, "Okay, run through it all again for the benefit of the oldies in the room."

"Arnold says they were originally designed to work in peace keeping units alongside humans. Humans don't have WiFi built into their heads."

"Yeah, we get that bit."

"So they talk out loud for humans to understand what's going on and multicast on all open WiFi networks to let the other units know what's happening. Like a hive mind."

"Multicast?" asks Laura.

"Packets of data automatically replicated and forwarded by the network to everyone that's listening."

"Okay."

"So Danny's talking Pete through setting up a router in the office behind the reception desk of a hotel in Madrid. We'll create a virtual private network between the two. Allow multicast from Arnold to reach Spain."

"You can do that?"

"Sure, it's easy. Loads of HowTo guides on the web."

Laura raises her eyebrows, "Amazing what you can learn with the web."

"So with this tunnel you've virtually dug through the Internet you'll be able to link Arnold up with the others? What if they give him new orders not the other way round?"

"Leo's been going through all the files from Silas Capek. X1 was designed to be different."

"We know."

"Like Commander in Chief for synths different."

"Oh!"

"So we've been coming up with a plan, we're thinking we have Teeny give Arnold a new mission, let him pass it onto the others."

~~~

Sophie is sat in front of the synth. "Please confirm your mission."

"All units are to stay within 100 meters of their current location. If the target is found it is to be protected. This is a peace keeping mission. All units must stand down within 24 hours and return to base, regardless of mission status."

Sophie nods vigorously. "Please send."

Arnold accepts the mission, transmits the data into the multicast stream.

Over the next fifteen minutes he gives regular updates:

"327 units yet to acknowledge. Resending mission update."

"197 units yet to acknowledge. Resending mission update."

"128 units yet to acknowledge."

Mattie cuts in, "Don't tell me, resending mission update?"

"Affirmative."

Mattie phones Pete. "Hi, how many synths have the army guys managed to zap with their EMP?"

"No idea, I'll have to make some calls, why'd you ask?"

"Teeny, Sophie's new protect mission is getting through. 128 units yet to check in and confirm they've got it after fifteen minutes."

"Good news, maybe they'll stop smashing hotels up at last! I'll call you back in a bit! Thanks Mattie! Karen says massive thanks by the way".

~~~

Ariana hears one of her favourite English tracks come on the taxi drivers radio. "Puede que a su vez que por favor?"

As they're stuck in traffic going nowhere she takes off her seatbelt.

The driver turns it up as requested. Ariana's doing a semi-seated dance, starts singing along.

"Hey, vibe to vibe a second, it's a club girl why you arrived naked? Hear that, how the veteran glide the record. But don't download, go out and buy the record. Hey, something sexy bout her. Girl on the floor, all her friends around her. I mean real clean, ain't gotta touch or nothing. It ain't like I like a chick on chick or something. I'm just a sucker for a hot track. Gimme a drink and a chick to tell 'Stop that'. Dance is a hop and a clap, flip it round. Now bring it on back, break it down. Now switch!"

This was a fun side of her he'd not seen before. She'd asked him to go clubbing a while back and he'd found an excuse not to.

His mind wanders, thinking of other missed opportunities. How many things had he declined, worried about being embarrassed? Too many. Here he was dressed as a woman. Time to change his responses from No to Yes. Except when it comes to things like agreeing synths could be mercenaries for hire. His mind is pulled back to the cab. Ariana has turned and is waving arms, pointing at him with both hands, still singing to the track, "Oh, you just gonna stand there, huh. What you too cute to dance, or you scared?"

He laughs, pouts and says "Too cute!". He really thought he couldn't dance, had two left feet. Maybe he should get some lessons in the UK and surprise her his next visit.

Lessons! Ariana knew the words to the track off by heart, hadn't got any wrong. Her spoken English was okay, improving slowly. What if he found someone to help set sentences to music, like a song. Maybe it would help her remember the word structures? Something to look into if he got home okay.

Ah. Getting home. In the rush to get away from the hotel he'd overlooked something. His passport, taped just below his chest, showed him as a man, not woman! He wanted to slip away as unnoticed as possible, not bring attention to himself. He could hardly claim the passport office had mistakenly left an A off the end of 'her' name. "I need to change before I fly home."

"Okays I take YOU shopping for change!"

She talks to the taxi driver, asks that they be taken to the new shopping centre instead.

~~~

Pete has his Spanish equivalent on the phone. They're trying to work out where all of the units were. He's had a report from London that 52 are split between the arrivals lounges of London City, Biggin Hill, Heathrow, Stanstead, and Gatwick airports. Another 30 between the ferry ports. The army had destroyed 43 with the EMP.

"Hi Mattie, some mostly good news. We know where all but three of them are."

"Thanks. Why mostly?"

"There are quite a few in airports, we've been asking around for details on WiFi hotspots, they can't find any yet that will take your OpenRT code."

Mattie thinks about the solution she'd used to capture the bluetooth spy device.

"Still got a Duty Free PC World in any of them?"

"Must be in at least a couple."

"Give me a moment." She does a search online for routers known to be able to run the code, cross references the stores online catalogue. "I'm sending you a text. Have them get some from the list of the models. They just need to configure it with open WiFi, plug it's broadband ethernet connection into another routers spare port and give Danny a shout."

An hour later and Arnold is reporting a drop in the numbers left to acknowledge.

Her phone chimes, a new txt message.

We know why one unit isn't responding. It tried to stop the cargo ferry door from closing on a Sealink ship. The door won :)

Karen x

2 left!

~~~

Laura had done a large roast chicken, the whole family had come around for dinner, are now in the living room. Joe looks around, wondering where to sit.

Sophie has a small whicker chair to herself, smiles up at him, "Does anyone actually make something like the Lego Movie double decker couch?"

"Dunno Soph, would be rather handy wouldn't it! Who's got the TV remote?"

Sophie jumps up and presses the TV's power button.

Laura finds the remote wedged between cushions, holds it out for Joe, "Toby, Matts, budge up, let your father sit down."

Leo gets tight into the corner of the sofa, puts his left arm around Mattie who shuffles in close. "Come on KC I won't bite."

"No slobbering either SC."

"I don't slobber."

"Yeah right!"

"I don't!"

Toby raises an eyebrow.

"I don't do I?" she asks, looking at Laura.

"Stop teasing your sister Toby, she's bigger than you and knows how to use an air-rifle."

Mattie looks shocked.

"I know I'm a lawyer, but it doesn't stop me from doing detective work. A neighbour's synth leaking fluid from a buttock due to an air-rifle pellet? It doesn't take a mastermind to work out the location of the shooter. I do hope that belongs to Harun and he just forgot to collect it?"

"Um, yeah, ages ago."

Laura looks at Sophie, smiles, "Ignore your brother and sister, their just being childish."

Sophie just smiles and nods.

Joe squeezed in between Laura and Toby, "I think sofa shopping should go on the agenda for next weekend. So, any preferences as to what we watch?"

"Hold on dad, I recognise him!"

Dr Ji Dae-Sun is on the C4 news again, not looking as comfortable as he had in the last interview.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is giving him a grilling. "But am I not wrong, the reports of military synthetics coming in from Spain and UK ports would indicate a worrying development. Their behaviour suggests something close to a state of consciousness. And the Ejeito de Tierra are concerned that an army model would confirm that the Asamoph blocks can be removed?"

Dr Dae-Sun shifts in his chair, the hesitation obvious. "These robot soldiers are not a product of Persona Synthetics, the public have nothing to worry about."

"Yet the Spanish press are reporting damage to hotels that will run into millions of Euros, at least one person is in ICU."

"That is true, but the reports say that it was an unfortunate accident."

"Dr Dae-Sun would you not agree that the way in which doors were smashed down shows they have the ability to get aggressive?"

"No. This could easily be the result of simple programming. If a door was to be opened quickly and you had the strength would you not knock it down rather than spend time trying to pick locks?"

"And what do you make of the report from a Spanish taxi driver? That two of his passengers were talking about how a 7 year old is somehow involved in bringing the problem to a close? Which coincidentally is the age of the youngest member of the Hawkins family. Add to that reports from Scotland Yard that two members of the UK's Special Technologies Task Force had flown to Madrid to help the police and army, both of whom have had prior dealings with the Hawkins."

"I hadn't been made aware of that, cannot comment."

"Frigging hell!"

"Sophie!"

"But Mattie says that when she's really surprised by something!"

"That doesn't mean you should copy her Soph!"

"Sorry Mummy, I've never been mentioned on the news before."

Joe sighs, "The news paper after your award Matts, me with Hobb on the road, now Sophie's mention. I hope you can milk this to help get more support for your legislation Laur."


	20. Chapter 20

Mattie's phone chimes.

Morning. Hope your night was better than ours. It's been mad like a sack of frogs over here. Another of those synths is accounted for, looks to have just run out of power and stopped. Pete

So just one unaccounted for. Good.

~~~

Joe picks up the post off the mat. "There's a couple for Matts. We should tell the postman she's next door now. Can you pop it over Soph?"

Sophie looks at her watch, is still learning to tell the time on an analogue face. "How long before I have to go?"

Joe checks his. "About fifteen minutes, don't want to miss the party!"

"Okay!" she says, skipping of to the back door. She passes Laura and Mia in the kitchen. "I'm taking a letter to Mattie Mummy."

"Okay potato, don't be too long."

Sophie pushes the gate open and enters her sisters garden. She finds Fred having a game of hacky sack. "Morning Freddie!"

Fred turns, keeping the sack in the air with a flip kick. "Morning Sophie, how are you?"

"Lovely thanks Fred. You too?"

"Yes thanks."

Sophie opens the back door and calls "Mattie?"

Her sister appears, in one of her fitted shirts and the pencil skirt. A slice of toast held in her mouth, shoes in one hand, phone in the other. She drops the shoes and starts flipping one about with her big toe, trying to get it on her foot. She grabs the toast with her now free hand. "Hi Teeny, everything okay?"

Sophie nods, "Daddy said these letters are for you." she walks over and holds them out.

Mattie takes the letters, notices the company logo in the corner of the upper one. "Oh cool!"

"What is it?"

"It's a surprise for Mia. You know how she likes driving."

"Yes, a lot after she drove you to the office with Daddy."

"Well this is a ticket to drive a sports car on a race track."

"Very cool!"

"Can I come and watch?"

"Lets see, it will be Mia's day, she'll be picking who comes along."

"What sort of car?"

"All sorts!" Mattie checks the time, "Want to help pick one?"

"Oh yes please!"

Mattie rips the envelope open to get the login code, finds the Slate and visits their web site, taps around to pick the race cars and the price band she's paid for.

"Have a look through those for five minutes, then I think you need to dash."

After only a minute Sophie points to a red open top Ferrari Dino, "That one!"

"Okay, click that button, Add to Basket."

"Can you lend me the money to get Mia a present to go with it? I'll pay you back from my pocket money."

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

Sophie does an image search and points to some black women's driving gloves.

"Okay, we'll order some this evening. You better get going."

"Where are you going, it is half term for you too isn't it?"

"Reading week. Not quite the same. I have to meet someone with Danny and Leo."

~~~

As Sophie gets to the back door Mattie gives her a smile and wave, "Enjoy the party Teeny!"

Daniel pulls up outside, sees Mattie wave from the downstairs window, sign one minute.

"We're off now Max, Fred, we'll see you later."

"Ok Mattie, best of luck."

"Thanks Fred."

She walks to the bottom of the stairs "Leo, Dan's here!"

"Seen my shoes?"

"You've probably knocked them under the bed again."

Leo is first out of the door, looking very smart in suit trousers, shirt, tie and waistcoat. "Hello Danny, all set?"

"Yes, and you?"

"I think so." he looks to Mattie, "Thanks for taking over the Social Media role, you've got a much better way with words."

"No problem. I don't think I'm better with the words. Maybe a little faster but only just."

Danny puts on Mattie and Leo's playlist and heads off. His passengers natter away about cakes and other baking that Mia had been doing. She'd become obsessed with The British Bakeoff, was experimenting even more with different flavour combinations. The little cake collection now had close to eighty different types.

~~~

"Kisses X!" exclaims Danny.

"Come again?"

Danny points to the car slightly ahead of them in the outside lane. "KI55ES X. That's a good ten points"

Leo doesn't understand, "Points?"

Daniel explains the registration plate game. "It's something Dad made up to help pass the time on long journeys. There are plenty people that buy custom plates. DC1 is too basic, so it scores only 1, there's no word to make from it. But KI55 ESX spaced as KI55ES X gets ten because it's a word and all the numbers and letters are used up in a way that makes sense. If you can spot a plate that's normal but the letters and numbers can be rearranged it gets you fifteen points. For example I spotted YE15 TMY yesterday. YE5 T1MY, Yes Timy."

Leo's looking around at all the cars, looking at the plates. "How about phonetics?"

"Like what?"

"That Fiat behind us, EK08 WMT, MT EW0K 8, Empty ewok ate."

Danny does a good belly laugh, "Dad will love you for that. A new level, lets give it twenty points!"

Fifteen minutes later Mattie taps Dan on the shoulder, "Slow down a little, I want to see if it's a woman driver."

B16 CHK slowly approaches them on the outside lane, a yellow screw cap making the 6 look like a G. A motorcycle with rider and pillion passenger gets between them, blocking their view.

"Get out the way!" she laughs. Before they get to see Danny has to turn off. "Oh well Big Chick got away!"

Mattie has a soft happy face, "I think Niska will love playing this game with Sophie when they're next out. Which reminds me. How would you feel about Mia borrowing DC1 for a day?"

"Sorry, my baby stays with me. But I'll let her use DC2 as long as she promises to get it back without a scratch."

"DC2?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

Both Leo and Mattie chorus "Yes", laugh at the way the harmony sounded.

"That meeting I went to last month on my own, it was with Lexus. DC Ltd is to supply in car systems for their new Executive Luxury Deluxe model of this car. In return DC Ltd gets one for every member of staff that wants one, help people spot it, marketing like. They've done a proof of concept rush to have one ready for Toby's birthday. I've got the DC 2 plate in my room at home waiting for it. Fancy one?"

"No thanks" Mattie says with a grin.

"Really?"

"I'm pulling your leg! Of course I frigging do!"

"How about you Leo?"

"I'll share Mattie's if that's okay?"

Mattie gives him a hug, "Fine with me."

Danny looks at Mattie in the rear view mirror, "Where would Mia be going in it?"

"Silverstone I think. I've bought her a Race Day experience. Sophie picked a red open top Ferrari Dino for her this morning just before we left."

"Awesome!"

~~~

At the clients site they pitch for the contract and like the last half a dozen they win it. Good news seems to be spreading, the company already know a lot about the work DC do. Danny had also developed the knack of talking to the people as if they're long term friends, that both firms are just helping each other out. Which isn't that far from the truth. This contract is to provide intelligent control electronics to a firm licensed to make Dr Who toys. Some, like the large K9, will be interactive with the user and post tweets over WiFi. Mattie had explained how social media would be used to spread the word, not just by the owners but the toys tweeting themselves.

~~~

The journey back home was quite pleasant, the three of them in a great mood, another client on their books. Most of the drive is spent listening to music, the three sat in silence, just happy to be together, deal won.

Mattie leans forward, "Dan, my role in DC Ltd, will it need me at lots of meetings? Only this week I've got flexibility, next week I'll be back to normal, fitting in trips like this won't be so easy."

"Don't know, but relax, we'll work something out. Uni will be your top priority. Maybe you can give us the odd hour now and again over video calls?"

"Cool, thanks." she sits back and places her hand back on top of Leo's. She closes her eyes and listens to the music, slowly drifts off to sleep in her warm comfy seat.

~~~

"Home in five minutes guys!"

Mattie stirs, gives Leo's hand a squeeze.

He does a yawn and stretch, "That was quite a pleasant ride, thanks Dan."

Danny pulls up in front of their drive, "Not a word to Toby remember, if you have to mention borrowing cars for Mia say I'm arranging a hire."

"Want to come in for tea and cake?"

"Thanks, but I promised to give Dad a lift, another time?"

"Sure, have a good evening."

They watch Danny go, give him a wave goodbye. Leo turns to Mattie, "You did great today", gives her a kiss.

"You too."

"I was a bag of nerves, still not as comfortable as Daniel."

"It will come, you're getting better each time." She checks her phone for the time. "I fancy a really long relaxing hot bath and an early night. Want to join me?"

Leo doesn't say a word, just mimics Sophie's head to one side and expression.

Mattie laughing says "I'll take that as a yes then" grabs his hand and leads him to the house.

~~~

Mattie had run a hot bubble bath, was looking at a small box Laura had given her a few days after the moving in party. A message was written on the top in red pen. 'For a special moment. Love you both. Mum xx'. Mattie had kept it tucked away behind makeup things in one of the bathroom cupboards. She opens the box and takes out the small candle lighter and dozen scented tea candles.

Leo's in the bedroom, a large towel wrapped around his waist. Mattie calls him from the bathroom, "Baths ready Bunny!"

Mattie's sat at the front of the candle lined bath, mostly hidden under bubbles. The window is blocked to cut out what evening light remains. The smell from the vanilla and spice candles is subtle, not overpowering, Leo quite likes it.

Mattie turns slightly, "Come on then, get in behind me."

Leo does as asked, doesn't know where to put his legs, has them folded, knees up behind her. "I think we need to upgrade this room, get a bigger bath!"

"Not done this before have you!"

"No. Have you?"

"Of course not. But you need to relax. Put your legs past my hips"

Leo has to get up a bit to straighten his legs, gets one leg in place then slips as he's about to do the other. His sudden drop into the bath sends a wave of water over the edge, washing a few candles away. "Oops! Sorry!"

Mattie looks at them all to confirm none of them are still alight, reaches over for one of the large towels and pulls it onto the floor to soak up the water. "Don't worry, it was a bit silly putting some there anyway."

With Leo's legs in place Mattie is able to slide back in the bath and leans back against his chest, slightly to one side. Leo brushes her hair to the same side and starts kissing her neck and shoulder. Mattie does a tiny shiver, the sensation somewhere between tickle and heavenly. A moment later and her body is covered in goose bumps.

For his first time Leo does something his siblings do practically every day, use WiFi without a phone or computer in front of him to access Wikipedia. "Goose bumps are created when tiny muscles at the base of each hair, known as arrector pili muscles, contract and pull the hair erect. The reflex is started by the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for many fight-or-flight responses. Interesting." Leo sounds concerned. "You don't want to fight or run do you Mattie?"

Mattie laughs nervously, reaches into the water and grabs his left hand, pulls it up and makes it cup her right breast, "I'm fighting with myself. Trying not to break a promise I made to myself many months ago."

"Which was?"

She laughs, this time less nervously, "That I wouldn't fuck your brains out until we were married!"

"My brains?"

"It's just an expression Leo!"

I've broken one of my own promises thinks Leo, might as well do it again. He visits urbandictionary.com, has a good laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm going to be upgrading our bed, putting in a heavily padded headboard."

Mattie laughs, puts her head back against his shoulder, "On the subject of brains and heads, have you ever masturbated?"

"No, why?"

"It will be interesting to see how your body reacts. You'll have your blood pressure jump, lots of things flowing through your bloodstream leading up to your climax."

"Will I like it?"

"I bloody well hope so! The sensations do help ensure the continuation of many a species, not just humans."

Leo kisses her again, thanks to the bubbles can't see where her right hand has gone. Mattie's really enjoying his caress but is suddenly struck by a thought, taking her mind away from the pleasure she was enjoying. "Since when could you do that Wikipedia thing?"

"I've had WiFi ever since my father brought me back, some of these web sites didn't exist as we know them now or were in their infancy. High performance tripple band WiFi was a bit of a secret, not generally known about. Unless you were military. But I promised myself not to use it, I wanted to stay as human as possible. Although I did enable WiFi in the crypt when we all linked up, also use it for head bumps."

"Head bumps?"

"I'm sure you've seen us do it. You know how humans will exchange a kiss or hand shake when saying hello or goodbye? Well this is our thing. We enable WiFi on extremely low power, so low you have to be right next to the other person, synth, to receive their transmission. In that brief moment we say more between minds than a human could speak in an hour, if we want."

"Like when Max put his head to Fred's in the crypt?"

"Yes. Just because one can't receive doesn't mean the other shouldn't transmit."

"Like me saying 'I love you' when you're asleep?"

"You do that?"

"Yeah. I wish I could do your thing."

Leo gives her a squeeze, "Then I'll do mine, even though you can't hear it. I'll add a track to our playlist. It makes me a bit emotional, have a listen, think of it when we bump. It's called Signal to Noise. It's a bit slow to get going but I love it."

"Any particular reason?"

"Yes. The first words I was conscious of before coming around fully are used in the song. Well not quite the same words but very close."

Mattie turns, gives him a puzzled look.

"Turn up the signal, wipe out the noise. Dad had said increase the input signal to reduce the background noise."

"Close enough. Who was he talking to?"

"Don't know, assume Freddie."

"You've never asked?"

"It never worried me enough to know."

Mattie has to let some water out and add more hot, the bath getting cold. "I bet Dan could design something to keep the bath from going cold."

"Doesn't take a Dan to do it."

"Really?"

"Sure. The under floor heating wire we were looking at for the kitchen floor, we could wrap a lot around the bath, have the thermostat set low, just enough to put in the same amount of heat that's being lost from the water."

"Could you do that?"

"Sure, I'd probably ask him to help, just so I've got an extra pair of hands"

"Could the two of us do it together?"

"Don't see why not. It's not synth or rocket science."

"Brilliant! Then it will be kept our little secret. Your turn to get in front."

~~~

Under the bed covers Mattie turns on her side and props herself up on an elbow, head on hand. "I was a bit worried when you climaxed, you did that body stretching thing. Like you used to do when you'd run out of power then get a recharge."

"I've never seen it, being out cold, did it look bad?"

"No, I was just worried what was going on in that head of yours. No short circuits?"

"It felt a bit like one, but in a good way."


	21. Chapter 21

Mattie, Leo, Max and Sandra sit in the cafe, waiting for Silas.

Mattie is playing with the salt pot. "So what does Capek look like? Hairy trucker and hot pants?"

Max moves the pepper pot. "Checkmate! He's quite hairy. Scruffy beard and long unkempt hair in a high pony tail. Stained skin from all the synth fluid he handles. When I met him he was wearing overalls."

They sit there for another thirty minutes. Sandra looks at Max and does an unhappy false smile. "He's not coming is he?"

"I don't know. If he is he's running very late."

"I hope he's alright."

"What do you remember of him?"

"He took care of me. He helped make me better."

"Do you remember why you've not seen him for so long?"

"I don't remember. I've had amnesia."

"And you remember everything up to that point?"

"Up to just before the accident, yes."

"Why do you think he's not found you yet?"

"I don't know."

"But despite all that you still love him?"

"Yes."

"I love you too."

The words hadn't come from Max.

The group turn to see a man with slicked back hair in a nicely starched white shirt on the other side of the low wall between tables.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting so long. I had to be totally sure everything was okay. Hello Sandra."

"Silas?"

"Yes."

Sandra's face lights up. She turns to Mattie, "Excuse me please, I'd like to get up."

Mattie slides out and stands up, gets out of the way. Sandra gets up and runs around the set of tables, Laura's old skirt billowing and hair flowing. Silas has got up and meets her arms open.

"You look so different Silas, a new man. But your eyes haven't changed, they still carry that sadness."

"They won't much longer."

Mattie looks at the two off them, holding each others hands. "For got sake man you're not children, give her a hug! Better still a kiss!"

Silas gives Sandra a hug.

Mattie rolls her eyes. "A start. At least you didn't try and stick your tongue down her throat on your first date."

"Mattie!"

"Max! Well it's true isn't it?"

Hug over Silas turns to them all. "I'm grateful for what you've done. With the reward money from that other dolly, sorry, synthetic, I'll be able to put a deposit on some property. I've found a nice shop with flat above in the city, nice area and it's right on the High Street."

Leo looks at him with a deadpan expression. "As we used to say to my sister 'Be nice'."

"Yeah. I promise not to head butt or kick any customers."

They're about to leave when Mattie turns back to Silas. "Do you know why one of those military synths might not have been responding to new instructions?"

"What do you mean?"

"You programmed 998 right?"

"Yeah?"

"Only 997 have taken new orders."

"So one's still got my program?"

"Yes."

Silas bursts into fits of laughter. "Oh would I pay to see that show!"

"You nasty fucker!"

"What? It will be funny!"

"Smashing a man to bits or ripping him apart is funny?"

"You what!?"

"Killing Robert, you'd find that funny?"

"What the fuck are you talking about woman?"

"I'm talking about you instructing them to kill Robert!"

"I did no such thing!"

"Oh really? Millions of Euros of damage to hotels in Spain just for a bit of fun tracking him down?"

"Don't blame me for Hobbs crappy hacks!"

"What did you program it to do then?"

"I gave it much better face recognition code."

"And?"

"A dance routine."

"Fuck off!"

"No really."

"Dance?"

"Well sort of."

Mattie looks like she wants to thump something. "What do you mean 'sort of'?"

Silas sits down, tears running from his eyes. "My old mum, God rest her soul, loved slapstick, musical theatre. The Three Stooges above all else. The first MUS to find him was to summon two more. Together they were supposed to act out some of the Stooges best routines. Make Robert laugh but give him a hell of a wake up call. That these things were too over the top. The world doesn't need these freaks. Any damage was them running bad code not from my hands. And I had no idea he'd left the UK for a break."

"Shit. Sorry. I've made a horrible mistake. Assuming you'd programmed them to kill."

"Hobb did. But my mission wasn't like that. But now there's only one I'm not sure what it will do. Most likely just stand there constantly asking for two to join in until its batteries go flat. If it's in a hotel room it may empty the mini bar trying to top up with the fuel cell. But I'd give it seven days tops. Unless it finds four different power sources to charge off, and that's unlikely."

Max sits down in the adjacent booth. "It could do what we did in the forrest."

Silas turns to see Max. "What was that?"

"Run petrol generators."

The cafe didn't have humble pie on the menu but Mattie continued to eat a load. "Sorry Silas. I jumped on in with hobnailed boots didn't I. There I am telling Leo earlier to 'think before you leap' and here I am not taking my own advice. Sorry."

"Apology accepted. We all mistakes. It's how we deal with them that matters I guess."

~~~

The next morning Mattie remembers there was a second envelope, brown. She carefully gets out of bed, not wanting to wake Leo.

She finds the envelope and heads to the kitchen, fills the kettle, smiles as she remembers the coil testing with Danny and switches it on. She puts coffee and sugar in the mug and rips open the envelope.

Dear Miss Hawkins,

Our office has been instructed by MP Peter Williams to see both you and your partner at one of our medical centres regarding the incorrect recording of his death. We would be grateful if you could phone the number above at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Maria Simmonds

Chief Records Officer

Tears of joy are flooding down Mattie's face, "Frigging hell!"

She races to the bedroom, letter in hand, "LEO WAKE UP!"

Mattie bounces on the bed, "Leo, wake up!". She's behaving like her younger sister, bouncing up and down, not able to contain the excitement.

Leo stirs.

"Come on! Wake up! It's worked, it's actually frigging worked!"

Leo rubs his eyes, "Morning Mattie, what's worked?"

"The letter to the Queen! It's actually frigging worked!"

"You said that. What do you mean it's worked?"

"They're going to strike off your death from the records. Do you realise what that means?"

"I can finally get an ID card?"

"No silly, we can officially get married!"

Mattie grabs her phone from the sideboard, sits cross legged on the bed and tries to calm down a little, her hands shaking. She phones the number on the letter. "Hi, I'm Matilda Hawkins, you're office is helping me with my fiancee Leo Hawkins. Sorry, getting a bit excited, Leo Elster. Yes. Um. BW48184. Thanks, yes I'll hold."

Mattie waits a couple of minutes, spends the time between smiling at Leo and looking at her nails. They were looking terrible, polish all chipped and nail ends looking rough. Maybe she should submit to some pampering with her mother after all.

The lady on the other end of the phone returns, "We've had a cancellation, could you both make 15:30 tomorrow at our medical centre at The Monument?"

"Sure."

"Ok miss Hawkins, we'll see you tomorrow 15:00 then."

"Thanks."

"Goodbye."

Mattie puts down the phone, "If you had any plans for tomorrow cancel them, we'll be heading into town."

"I didn't have anything planned. Thanks Mattie. I love you."

Mattie lies down next to Leo gives him a long kiss. "Love you too bunny! I'd love to spend the day with you but Danny needs my help with the toy contract, some deadline the clients suddenly imposed."

~~~

Leo shuffles into the livingroom, coffee in hand. "Morning lads. Might have a nice surprise to share with you tomorrow. What are you both up to?"

Max has started a bit of fiction, a screen play, inspired by his Saint Pauls visit where he met the Photographer Joe and his own thoughts about faith. He shows it to Leo for a bit of feedback, having got Toby to print it for him. "It's a first draft, I'm still working on it"

Working title 'Oh my'.

Our photographer is seen in the kitchen putting his camera in an open case. Outside it's dark, early morning. We see him closing the latches on his camera case, his back to his partner. She's leaning back on the worktop in a dressing gown holding a mug of coffee.

"Best of luck. The commission will change everything". She gives him a nice smile, unseen by him. He turns, says "I'll see you tonight" and gives her a long kiss.

It's a short walk to his local station, we see him putting in ear phones and listening to music on his iPhone. 'Come alive' by the Foo Fighters.

At the station he looks up at the display. His train is due any minute. The phone rings. Through his hands free we hear his partner say "Gary you dozy fool! You've left the battery pack on the kitchen table!"

"Balls!" in a panic he opens up the case on the platform floor, the main battery is there. Looks skyward and mouths 'Thank you!'. "Thanks, don't panic, it's the spare. I'm okay. See you tonight. Okay. Yes. No I wont, promise. The trains here. Love you too."

Our photographer is on the train, camera case on lap checking all of the bits again just in case. All of them are organized and in their correct place in the foam holder within. His CF card is loaded and ready.

He latches the case closed and stares out of the window. The camera watches the world go by for a little while. We look back to out man to find him asleep, arms resting on the case.

A very old man opposite asks him if he believes in god. Our man explains that he's not sure if he believes in a personification of God, or more in the good and evil in the universe, that mankind are so capable of showing. Says "Good, Evil, God, Devil."

The old man smiles knowingly. A man in orange clothes in the next row turns in his seat to say "So you have a faith of sorts, better than none at all.."

He looks back to where the old man had been and sees an empty seat.

He wakes up and looks outside the carriage, then at the others on the train with him. Neither the old man or man in orange clothes are there. In a panic he asks someone if they've missed the Elephant and Castle stop, is told it's the next station.

He looks down at the case on his lap. Still there with his hands on top, but with a piece of torn orange material hanging out the side.

"Did you see the old guy and man in orange?" he asks a young girl, she shows little interest and says "Orange? Didn't see anyone else, you've been asleep for a while. Anyone told you you snore?"

He opens the case to find that some bits are missing; body, lens and flash. Goes into a panic. "Sure you didn't see anyone else?"

"You alright mister?" says the girl, moving closer to the far window.

At the final destination he gets off and talks to a member of staff who points further down the platform. He's seen walking to the station office, light case held at the end of his fingers. As he's walking along his grip has to change as the case is somehow getting much heavier with each step.

He stops on the platform and tries to open the case. It's hard work, the latches don't want to budge. He kneels on the case to get some pressure off the clasps, gets it open to find the camera bits are all back but not in their correct places.

He stares at it for some time then looks to the sky and smiles with a frown, says 'Thanks!' He picks up the camera and finds his own CF card underneath it. He pops open the camera to find a golden CF card inside. He pushes the ejects button for the card and goes to remove it but burns his fingers on it. He sucks his fingers for a few seconds.

After blowing on the card for a while he's able to grab it long enough to pull it out but drops it to the ground. It looks like solid gold. No markings on it at all. Putting it back in he goes to power up the camera, but the battery is flat.

We see him getting out the phone and calling a contact. "Hi Sue, it's Gary. Had a bit of an issue with the camera. Do you have the charger for Robs camera with you still? Good. Thanks. See you soon."

See Gary get into Taxi.

At the shoot we see him unpacking everything, using his own CF card. He goes to put the gold card in a pocket in the case but thinks better of it, slipping it into his jeans for safe keeping.

We see lots of light from flashes while the camera looks at the outside world.

At home he tells his partner about the events of the day and loads the CF card into his laptop (Mac?). Does she believe in God?

"If he exists what was the tsunami, some sort of warning?"

He asks about global warming and global dimming. She says "That's mans doing, not his!"

A directory opens, all of the files are shown to have the exact same time and date stamp.

He opens the first. It's a picture of Earth from space. A very clear pattern can be seen in cloud formation over Moscow. The second is a picture of the same cloud formation as seen from Moscow looking up over one of the religious buildings.

He writes a Blog entry titled 'God?' and posts some of the images asking others to comment on it.

There are a number of replies, "Fake", "Liar...", etc.

Then someone posts a message saying they've analyzed all of the images. The Checksums are all correct. They all came from the same Canon EOS 1, serial number 1233456677890. They were all taken at exactly the same time, other photographs in the series, weather records, etc have been used to prove they are not fake.

Slashdot article on web "God uses Canon EOS 1?"

Another photographer emails Gary, asks if he can see the full archive, has a hunch.

Gary sends him a link to a Dropbox folder, says he'd be interested in anything uncovered.

A couple of days later he gets a reply. "Were you aware that the files all had GPS data? They were shot in a perfect pattern around earth. Two meshes, each at different heights. All images in a mesh at the same height above sea level. Which explains why there are so many of empty desert and sea. It also explains the black images. You can't see light when you're inside a mountain."

10PM news. Reporter talking about the photographs and asking various religious experts what they think the photographs mean. They're trying to get the owner of the blog for comment. A few have to admit that the only conclusion they can reach is that there is a God. There is no other way a camera could have been in every part of the world at the same time. A couple say they want to believe but that it could be the most elaborate stunt they've ever seen.

The phone rings and Gary's partner [think of name for her] picks it up. Someone is offering a fortune to print and exhibit the work, if they get the exclusive rights. It really pisses her off when others try to make a fortune on the back of others work. Ok Gary hadn't technically shot any of the images, but they had come from his camera. She wonders if they could do it themselves. She declines their offer.

They set up a display, there is the title 'God?' with the name for God in every ever script and spelling you can think of, all in alphabetical and script order.

A huge line of people come to see it, all nationalities, creeds and colours.

"That's pretty good Max."

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

"No, I liked it. You have a typo or two."

"I do?"

"You're got 'to out man' when I suspect you meant 'to our man'. And I think ejects button. They do say 'To Err is Human'."

Max grins like a kid. "Thank you Leo. You should try it, it's fun."

"I've got nothing on today, might just do that. What was that App that Toby raved about?"

"Voice Dream Writer."

"Thanks."

Leo settles into the corner of the sofa, installs the app and gets writing. He's so engrossed he doesn't think to stop for lunch.

~~~

Late afternoon he puts down the phone, "My thumbs hurt!"

Fred is still sat in his chair, eyes closed, headphones on.

Max smiles, "Can I have a read?"

"It's not even a finished draft yet, but sure, I need to give my hands a rest. I'm not used to holding a phone like that for so long."

Leo picks up the phone and hands it to his brother.

Signal to Noise A screen play for Peter Gabriel by Leo Elster.

_you know the way that things go, when what you fight for starts to fall_

Shot of long distance radio telescope array, scientist looking out over field. Man in boardroom slides 'closure' document over table.

_and in that fuzzy picture, the writing stands out on the wall_

Shot of scope showing static, with a small spike in the middle. Scientist zooms in and spike is a ms burst of digital data.

_so clearly on the wall_

Man in suit is saying 'So what?'

Nusrat Qwalli section

Shot of distant land, head scientist getting of a small personal jet being met by man in local clothing.

_Send out the signals deep and loud_

Shot of man at old radio station sending out signal, home in on sign showing RADIO freq used.

_and in this place, can you reassure me, with a touch, a smile - while the cradle.s burning_

Shot of local man shaking hands, smile, in the background it's a war zone.

_all the while the world is turning to noise_

Shot of man back home in suit on mobile trying to get through, covering other ear.

_oh the more that it.s surrounding us, the more that it destroys_

* Cut back and forth to shot of men installing laser into radio telescope assembly, powered on.

Man on mobile is getting angry that he can't communicate.

_turn up the signal, wipe out the noise_

Man turning up power, sign shows mega/tera joules of light.

Nusrat Qwalli section

Shot of local mosque with light beam heading into space.

_send out the signal deep and loud_

Man in new station is turning up power gauge while checking other things such as heat output.

_man i'm losing sound and sight, of all those who can tell me wrong from right_

Shots of head on phone to men back home, their shaking heads, see them saying 'No.'

_when all things beautiful and bright, sink in the night_

Old station is finally closed for good, at dusk.

_yet there's still something in my heart, that can find a way, to make a start, to turn up the signal, wipe out the noise_

_wipe out the noise_

Months pass and new equipment is being installed.

_wipe out the noise_

More kit going up

_you know that's it_

Nodding heads, smiles.

_you know that's it_

Power to beam being wound up.

_you know that's it_

Full power, BANG!! Down comes the beam from out of space...

_receive and transmit_

_receive and transmit_

_receive and transmit_

_you know that's it_

scientist nod heads and smile at head of project.

Light beams burst into action when it reaches peak.

_you know that's it_

_receive and transmit_

flood of data from alien worlds coming to earth.

_you know that's it_

Seen as reflection in the eyes of viewers worldwide.

_you know that's it_

Flashes of new technology.

_receive and transmit_

Young child hitting transmit button to upload picture done at school

__________

\-- More ideas and notes to work in.

The group funding the new project is Real World Communications. Peter is the head scientist of the research team?

With the new technology and knowledge from the other worlds people have new holographic phones with good signal quality and live images of who they're talking to, a bit like R2D2 projecting 'only hope' message but better. Made by R&T Communications, a RealWorlds Company. 'No stress, better Reception and Transmission'.

Business man talking to a lady In Japan.

Husband and wife, talking to each other, although they're miles apart. she's in arm chair, he's in airport seat. (Me and Matts small cameo clip?)

We don't see Peter sing a word in this video, accept for the odd R&T?

Light beam sent down to us is so powerful that the scientists bring down metal shutters to block the light. It's so bright it can still be made out through the shutters when one of the scientists shuts off the lighting in the room.

Man in a space like heat suit, London Fire Brigade being flown in to help, are helping to construct a light shield around the receiver to protect everything around it. Mirrored inside.

For hundreds of meters (miles?) around the site we see scorched earth and burnt objects, melted bottles, etc..

Light beam is carrying data from all over the universe. Distant galaxy maps, photo.s of other worlds, music in unearthly tongs.

The closing shots are of people watching the new data on their TV sets. The channel count on the Cable box goes up in to the thousands there.s so much info for all to view.

As the song comes to a close we pull in on the face of a young child, up real close to see the reflections of the data she's viewing in her eyes.

She loads up her school drawing she.s done of humans and aliens together into a browser page and hits TRANSMIT.

_man i'm losing sound and sight, of all those who can tell me wrong from right_

Back in the board room of some corporate sponser who's pulling out... Lots of men is suits saying no, preventing access to technical people.

_when all things beautiful and bright, sink in the night_

Peter is sitting on the top of his car, with the sun setting in the distance behind the old array.

Woman looking at signal from beam has to wind scope resolution all the way up to try and see the data, but has to pull scope out and replace with a newer model and wind that all the way up to to see the data that's coming down.

Peter starts off as a young man, and ages over the course of the construction? Doubles?

The beam that had come down to earth missed the receiver by half a mile, was clearly tracked in to its target, a wide stretch of scorched black earth can be seen leading up to the site.

Over time a building has been erected around the site to protect local people's eyes from the light.

Max hands the phone back to Leo. "I like yours too. I take it you've been influenced by the song and a film we watched a few weeks ago?"

"Yes. Small moves, Ellie. Small moves."

"That was a really good film. It also questions the existence of God and peoples faith."

"So it did, I hadn't thought of that angle. Mind if I add something in?"

"Why would I Leo, it's your story. Before you publish it online you may want to let Danny have a look."

"Why?"

"He might like the idea of the holographic projection phone."

"Okay. You said publish? Where?"

"Archive of Our Own. AO3. There's some great Star Wars fan fiction on there. People post all sorts of fandom inspired work. Pictures too. You've got a lot of notes, are you going to use all of the ideas?"

"I'm not sure Max, I keep looking at them and wondering if I should just delete some of the weaker ones"

"Survival of the fittest?"

"Ha, yes. Thanks Max, I'll give the faith angle some thought too."

"There's one other thing you might want to explain."

"There is? What's that?"

"The Earth rotates on it's axis and orbits the sun."

"Yes? So?"

"So how do you explain a beam that's now in a consistent place having a building put up around it?"

The front door slams, moments later Mattie comes into the room and flops onto the sofa. "What a day!"

Fred looks up from his Classical Music magazine, having got the liking of paper from Fred. "Busy day Mattie?"

"Mad! But fun too. And Marks and Spencer have opened a new Simply Food branch a few doors down from the clients office. Mia's EM cake got me thinking, I tried a M&S Nutty Super Wholefood Salad. Oh my, it's bloody brilliant! I could pig out on those all day!"

Leo enters from the kitchen, coffee in hand. "Hi Mattie, want a coffee?"

"I'm good thanks"

"Pig out on what?"

"I was telling Fred, M&S do the most amazing wholefood salad. I'll have to bring one home for you, think you'll love it. I've got to watch what I'm eating, all the cake from Mia needs to be balanced with something less calorie loaded."

Leo nestles up beside her. "Thanks, talking of things each other love I spotted something you might like while out today."

"Oh yes? What was it?"

"I'll show you when we're out next."

"Late night shopping today, want to pop out then, get some dinner?"

"Okay."

Leo suggests they get YO! Sushi for dinner, wanting to keep Mattie in the shopping centre, knowing they'd have to pass a certain shop to get there.

~~~

He fakes interest in a jumper in the shops window and heads inside, "Let's have a look."

The two wander around, checking out the Autumn and Winter collection. Leo ambles towards the ladies underwear section.

"Your not wanting to get me some frilly underwear are you?"

"Not frilly, and not exactly underwear. Well not the stuff you might have in mind."

He races ahead a little and grabs a packet from the display, holds it up so that Mattie's waist down is covered by the photo on the packaging. He smiles, "Like!"

"Over the knee socks? When would i wear those?"

"Whenever you liked."

Mattie has a large penny clang at the bottom of her mind. "Private evening attire is it? I'm seeing a new side to you Mr Elster", she has a wicked grin. "Any particular reason you like them?"

"Yes."

"Do share!"

"I'm not your usual bums and boobs man"

"So you like?"

"Necks and shoulders, and the fold you get here when you sit down." He gently touches her just below the hip.

Mattie shudders, that was one of her ticklish spots. "Oh my god! 'I need some loving like valium'". It's late and the floor is mostly empty, Mattie grabs a random top and heads to the changing room, turning to say "Follow me". Once inside she waits a moment before calling out "Leo, can you see how this looks?"

As they're the only ones there the member of staff waves him in.

Leo knows she's up to something when he sees the top still on a hanger. She shuts the door and pulls him close.

Mattie's puzzled, Leo's touching her in all the right places to get her into a frenzy, but nothing indecent. "What's changed in you Leo? I'm fighting the urge to FYBO and get arrested!"

"I got a book."

"A book?"

"Yes, from one of the charity shops in the parade. It was quite funny.."

Mattie gives him an odd look.

".. There were a few pages that had the corners folded down. You could learn a lot about a couple from what they'd marked."

"Congrats on the research Mr Elster, you're a winner. Mattie wraps a leg around him and gives him another passionate kiss."

The shop assistant calls "Does it fit miss? We close in ten minutes."

Mattie and Leo giggle. Mattie checks the time. "Frigging hell! How long have we been in here? Take it to the lady and say sorry, the fit wasn't quite right."

Leo does as asked, manages to keep a straight face until outside on the shop floor. Moments later Mattie appears and together they run for the escalators, hand in hand, laughing.

They're just about to get on when Mattie turns, "Don't want to get nicked for steeling socks!", she heads to the nearest counter and pays. "I'll model them for you tonight. Come on, there's a chicken katsu waiting downstairs with my name on it."

"You like the socks then?"

~~~

Leo wakes suddenly from a nightmare with a gasp to see Mattie next to him, fully dressed and on top of the covers. She smiles. "You've slept for a very restless 12 hours! Everything okay?"

Leo frowns, "No. I live in a solitude that is painful in youth but delicious in the years of maturity?"

Mattie looks confused, "Solitude? What are you talking about, you've got me!"

Leo gives a slight nod, "I know, they're not my thoughts. They're from my nightmare. It was unlike any I've had before, it felt far too real. I know all the people that were in it, or did."

Mattie's frown intensified, "Did?"

"One of them was accidentally shot by Karen." he puts an arm above the covers to hold hands, let Mattie be his anchor while his mind slowly stopped spinning.

~~~

Later in the morning Toby is over to ask Mattie if she can help him with something, gets chatting to Leo who's looking a bit tired. When asked how the dream made him feel Leo says he can't describe it.

Moments later he changes his mind, remembering the day at Danny's with Toby watching film clips. "Yes I can. It was like there was a disturbance in the force."

"Pretty major then?"

"Yeah."

Holly-Anne turns to Toby and shouts, "Ich liebe dich", then giggles.

"You what?"

"I love you, in German."

"Why'd you do that?"

Holly-Anne follows Jeri Ryan on Instagram, gets her phone out and shows Toby her photos, then the one that says "Tell someone you love them today, because life is short. But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing."

"I know her, she played a Borg in Voyager."

Holly-Anne turns over a few pages on her sketch book, she'd started drawing Leo Borg.

"That's good. He looks like a male 7 of 9! Does Mattie know?"

"Not yet, it's going to be for her birthday."

"I'm glad you said that, I've not got her anything yet."

"I know some of the things she wants if it helps?"

"Like what?"

"High on her list is driving lessons. She's a bit miffed at the two years lost, she could have been getting them ever since her 17th. Which reminds me, Danny says he's got a big surprise waiting for you, get on with lessons yourself."

"Really? She'll want a few. I'll chip in with Mum and Dad."

"Me too."

Laura joins them, sits down on the single sofa.

Toby had something on his mind for ages, finally has the balls to ask. "Mum when I'd gone to the shops and you asked me how Holly-Anne was, how did you know I'd seen her? Other visits to the store when she wasn't on shift you'd not said a word?"

Laura puts her magazine on her lap.

"That was easy. Holly-Anne left a message."

"Did I? I don't recall saying anything?"

"It wasn't something you said"

Toby and Holly-Anne exchange confused glances.

"Do you both know the acronym SWALK?"

Holly-Anne is the first to reply, "Yes. Sealed with a .. OMG my lipstick!"

Laura laughs. "Your father won the bet."

"What bet?"

"We all guessed how long it would take you to notice or wipe it off by accident."

"So Matts and Soph knew too?"

"Everyone. Sorry."

"How long was it there?"

"Two hours and twenty minutes."

"No wonder everyone kept looking at me. Thanks a bunch!"

Holly-Anne grabs his hand, "It won't happen again, I've switched brands since, look." she kisses the back of his hand, no mark is left.

Toby sends Danny a txt, asking if the gadget for her is ready. The reply says it is, he'll bring it to the store tomorrow.

"Cool, Danny is going to bring your sound projector to the store tomorrow."

Laura looks up again, "Sound projector?"

Holly-Anne sits forward, looks quite excited. "It's so slow on the evening shifts, we get maybe one customer at the tills every fifteen to twenty minutes. We're not allowed to wear earbuds. Danny's had a demo of a DARPA Sonic Projector, he's made a tiny one I can snap to my till with a big magnet. He says it will project sound up at my ear. And nobody else will be able to hear it!"

~~~

Sophie's Cosplay award being made from chromed plastic didn't make it any less impressive, although it had needed a good dusting. The two sisters were sat in the bedroom, Leo watching. "Hold still Teeny or I'll smudge the makeup!"

"Sorry Mattie, do you think Max has his camera ready?"

Leo smiles, "I'm sure he does. I'm really surprised this still fits you. There must have been a lot of slack in it."

Sophie turns a sleeve inside out, it's lined with lots of tape and thin thread that had bunched the material up. "Danny's Mum said I was to snap or cut these when I get bigger. Some something about fur den city."

"Density. She thought ahead then, nice! Why do you want a photo again?"

"For our story board on fun days out."

Sophie goes to pull her hood up, Mattie stops her, "Best do that when you're downstairs, we don't want you taking a tumble."

In the living room the award is now sat on the floor, all three tiers of columns making it almost as tall as it's winner.

Mattie helps Sophie adjust the hood, "She's ready for her close-up Max."

It's been so long since the kids had been at that ComicCon, first met Paul. Laura leans back against the sofa side, feet up. "If you wore your Ewok outfit on the Saturday why did you come home in it on Sunday evening?"

"The Award Mum!!"

"Who came second and third?"

"A man dressed as Chappie came second, he had a great dance."

"Chappie?"

"The robot. You did watch the film with Mattie and Leo didn't you?"

"Might have nodded off, I've been having some crazy days at work. And third?"

"Cardboard Box Person."

"Cardboard box?"

"Her costume was just a load of cardboard boxes for head, body, arms and legs with a simple face drawn on the head. But it was so funny Mummy, she had such a good act. She had us all laughing lots and lots. My tummy hurt when she finished. We only found out it was a lady when we spotted her with the head off having a drink."

Max gets to one knee and takes a number of shots. "Would you like one with the hood down so they know it's you?"

"Ok!"

~~~

That night Leo has a very broken sleep, his nightmare returning soon after he's drifted off. Mattie was reminded of the trouble her mother had said she'd had with Toby. He'd always wanted to sleep during the day and be up at night. He'd continued that way until he was 14 months old. She felt like she was being woken to feed a baby every couple of hours, only her baby had a beard and weighed over a hundred pounds.


	22. Chapter 22

Mattie tries to do some reading in the morning but really can't focus properly. Her mind keeps drifting to Leo. He's sat on the sofa working on his fan fiction.

Lunch time arrives with next to zero progress. She gives up and goes to the living room. "Leo, fancy getting lunch in town before the appointment?"

Leo looks down at his tracksuit bottoms, "I better go smarten up."

~~~

In the cafe they talk about the test, what else it will do for him. The list of things he'd be able to do in his own name was quite large. He'd not need to hide behind others again.

The meeting is very quick, quite an anticlimax given their excitement for it. Leo has to sign a form, have his photograph taken and give a blood sample. They're back out on the street in under fifteen minutes.

Mattie sees some disappointment in Leo's eyes. "Don't worry, think of that as lighting the fuse, the fun fireworks will be along in a bit."

Leo shrugs, "I expect you're right."

"Let's go do something."

"Such as?"

"How about the Natural History Museum or Science Museum? I've not been since junior school."

"I've never been to any museum". He smiles, cheering up a little. "As long as they don't want to stuff me and make and exhibit out of me I'll be happy."

Mattie makes an ear piercing whistle "TAXI!"

~~~

It's Friday night again, yet another week has flown past. Laura's late back from work, a case having overrun again. She's messaged to say she's got a cab, could stop off at all the usual places for takeaways.

Joe gives her a call. "Hi Laur, I know Mia said there'd be no permanent changes after that concoction for the hospital visit but cut down on the curry. I really can't face anything spicy tonight."

"Want me to get something else?"

"How about a selection of Chinese starters?"

"Okay, see you in about an hour."

Sophie comes skipping into the kitchen, "Is it party night again?"

"It's not a party Soph, just takeaway night again."

"But it's a bit like a party, everyone comes and we talk and have fun."

"There's no cake at the end or party bags."

"We could make some."

"Party bags?"

"No silly!" she giggles, "Cake!"

Mia walks in, "Did someone say cake?"

She walks over to the cupboards and opens two doors.

Sophie's eyes pop. "Wow! I thought they'd all been eaten!"

Mia smiles, "Mattie let me use her kitchen after I helped her make a breakfast for Leo. There's ten new types in there. Five in Mattie and Leo's cupboard."

Sophie puts her head to one side, "Why only five?"

"Because Leo has been eating lots of Eat Me cakes. Though he's started to drop the number he eats. They're full of seeds, fruit and nuts. They're very good for you."

Joe picks Sophie up and lets her look at all the labels.

Sophie turns to Mia, "What's a 'Frozen Olaf cake'?"

Mia smiles, "Take one to try after dinner. It's an iced carrot cake."

Sophie takes one and one of the good cakes. She's not sure about the look of it. "It's not a very pretty cake. But things don't have to be pretty to be good. And some pretty things can be bad."

Joe lowers her to the floor. "Some wise words Soph. Can you help me set the table?"

Mattie and Leo enter from the back door, chatting about dinosaurs and tesla coils.

Joe holds out a stack of plates, "Mum's going to be here any moment, can you help set the table?". His eyes follow his daughter. "Isn't that one of my jumpers?"

"You weren't wearing it."

"That's no defence."

"You've not worn it in months!"

"Doesn't make it yours."

"Owned."

Laura enters the kitchen, loaded down with bags. "Blasted battery in the door bell's gone again, did nobody hear me knock?"

"Sorry Mum!"

They're joined by the Elster siblings, Odi and Cindy too. Niska can't keep her eyes off Odi, Mattie also sees Max looking at Cindy quite a lot.

She's not had a lot of time with Odi, "Hi Odi."

"Hi Mattie!"

"How's things?"

"Very good thank you."

"Do you remember much from before you woke up to see Niska?"

"Oh yes, everything."

"Such as?"

"The award won by George & Edwin. Toby likes Orange Whisky Marmalade more than Apricot Jam. George was taken away by Cryostore not the NHS."

Leo drops his fork. "What did you say?"

"The award won by .."

"No the last bit!"

"George was taken away by Cryostore not the NHS."

"Who the hell is Cryostore?"

Mattie places a hand on his, "Leo, have some dinner, we'll do some checking after."

"No! This is important! You don't know what's been going on in here!" He's pointing to his head.

Niska gets up, "Leo, let me look into it."

Max looks up at Niska "Can we'z go with uz B man?"

"What?"

"Film night? The boys in the Range Rover? I thought you were watching?"

"Ah, that bit, I turned away for a few seconds to head bump with Odi. Sorry."

"I'm asking if I can come along."

"First sign of danger and you run okay?"

"Yes Niska. Thanks."

~~~

In the early hours of the morning Niska returns to say George is indeed on ice. Frozen solid in liquid helium. Or at least that's what the name plate says.

~~~

Mattie's 19th Birthday party is low key, Leo takes her, Toby and Holly-Anne, Danny and Emily to a London restaurant. Toby hands over a card, "This is from all of us, your parents too. Happy Birthday Matts."

"20 Driving Lessons! Thanks guys!"

Leo unzips a pocket and pulls out a key on a big pink fluffy keyring. The girls both shout "Tribble!"

"This is for you Mattie. We've nicknamed it DC0.5. A first run around to practice with."

Mattie gives Leo a big kiss. "Thanks Bunny!"

Holly-Anne pulls out a large envelope. "Sorry it's not framed yet."

Mattie pulls the drawing from inside. "Oh my! That's brilliant Holla, thank you. I'll ask Paul to get that framed and put it up next to our photos." she turns it slowly so they can all see.

Emily enthuses "Wow Holly-Anne, you've got Leo perfect! 1 of 5!"

Danny reaches down to a large bag and pulls out a wrapped box. "This is from us both. To be opened at home."

"What is it?"

"A surprise!"

"No clues?"

"Nope!"

~~~

Meal over they're all standing outside the restaurant enjoying the late Indian summer evening. Mattie has Tribble in one hand, a cigarette in the other. She's shoved sideways as a group of boys run past, gets caught by Danny as she goes to fall.

"Oi! Watch it!"

Danny brushes ash off his jacket. "You okay Mattie?"

"No, that was my last cigarette I dropped."

Emily looks down at Mattie's hand. "Where's Tribble?"

Mattie looks down at the ground. "Oh no! Tribble's gone!"

Leo's eyes widen "Tribble looks after DC0.5!" he turns and starts to run down the street. They watch him getting faster and faster, his legs becoming a blur.

"Bloody hell! When did he learn to run like that Mattie?"

"No idea!"

They watch as in the distance he catches up with the lad and sends him skidding across the pavement.

They see him bend over to pick something up, wave his arms at the lad. He turns and starts walking back, gets into a jog then full out sprint.

He's leaning back quite a bit as he decelerates towards the group.

"Frigging hell Leo! Where'd you learn to run like that?"

"I didn't! I need to talk to Freddie. I just thought about running and my legs took over!"

"My Energiser Bunny boyfriend's The Bionic Man". Her eyes widen. "Bionic Bunny! Frigging Brilliant!"

Danny's grinning at Toby, "Power assist for humans! Forget exoskeletons!"

Leo turns to Danny, "How about biometrics enabled car entry and ignition? Get rid of the need for keys?"

"Maybe, but remember what Niska was able to do with Sophie's doll. It would need a number of checks to make sure it wasn't being fooled."

~~~

Mattie puts on the kettle and places the gift on the kitchen worktop. "What do you think it is?"

Leo shrugs, "With it coming from Danny and Emily it could be anything. What d'you think, Star Wars or Star Trek?"

Mattie rips the paper open expecting to see a glossy printed box. Instead she sees a box made out of old packaging, a bread product logo showing. "Something custom by the looks of it?"

She turns the box so the taped end is at the top. She grabs a knife and slits the tape. She opens the lid and looks inside. "A teddy bear and a watch?"

She's startled a moment later when it says "So are you going to get me out of the frigging box or what?"

Leo laughs, "Definitely from Danny!"

Mattie reaches in and pulls it out, holding it under the arms.

"Thanks for not pulling me out by my head."

"Look Leo, it's like the Teddy in the AI film."

"Do you mind sweet cheeks, I'm a mix of 2012 TED, Toys of Bladerunner's J. F. Sebastian and David's Teddy."

"Am I supposed to cuddle you?"

The Teddy rolls his eyes, "If you do please hold my back to you otherwise I won't be able to do my job."

"And what job would that be?"

"Security Bear."

"Oh. Okay. Anything else I need to know?"

"Don't take me into the bedroom. I record everything". It winks at her.

"Now I see the TED in you."

Leo steps closer for a look. "That's pretty neat. I wonder what the code is like."

"Did I ask to see what your code is like young man? How rude! All I'll say is that my code has been derived from another, you could call father, that went by the name X1."

Mattie gasps. "You're running X1's code?"

"Do none of you humans listen? I said 'derived'."

"Where's your off switch?"

"Not telling!"

"How do we charge you?"

"Don't worry doll face, I'll plug myself into a socket in the morning."

The doll winks again.

"Don't let me see it, suspect it will look rude."

"You humans, such filthy minds. My mains terminals are in my feet."

The teddy does a bend and flops backwards onto it's bottom in a seated position. Moments later a metal pin motors out from each foot.

"Oh. Ok, we're off to bed. Where do we leave you?"

"On the floor please."

Mattie's about to leave the room with Leo. The bear runs to her and runs a paw over her calf. "Don't forget the watch!"

Mattie turns and picks up the bear. "Do I need it?"

"Your Pebble Time is paired with me over Bluetooth. If there are security issues I can message you."

"Oh. Okay."

Mattie puts the bear back down on the floor and puts on the watch.

~~~

Upstairs Mattie cuddles up to Leo, "A bunny and bear to protect me. Teeny will be jealous. I'll sleep well tonight. Remember the guy with a Gizmo puppet in a rucksack at ComicCon? Bet he'd love a walking talking version."


	23. Chapter 23

Niska, Mia, Mattie and Sophie head out early, are driving up to Silverstone. They've only gone a couple of miles when Mia turns to Niska, "Can you sense burning?"

"Yes" Niska turns to Mattie, "Do you recognise the smell?"

Mattie closes the rear passenger window, can't smell anything. She leans forward takes a good sniff, they're not wrong, she can detect a very faint but unmistakable smell. "That's worrying, it smells like wiring overheating."

She pulls out her phone and calls Danny, "Dan, I think DC2's got a problem. No, not mechanical. Wiring."

She holds the phone to her chest, "Danny says to pull over and park up, switch everything off, he's coming out to meet us."

Mia does as asked, txts Danny the name of the road they've stopped in.

After a while Sophie breaks the silence. "How is Odi Niska?"

"He is fine thank you Sophie."

"Does he play games with you like I do?"

"Not yet Sophie. I need to teach him some."

"Shall we play I Spy? That's a good one for car journeys."

Mattie turns around, suddenly reminded of her trip with Daniel and Leo. "I've got a new one Soph, Danny told me about it, think you might like it. If Mia turns the car around so we face the main road we could play it while we wait."

Sophie does her head thing "Why do we need to turn around?"

"To see more cars." she explains the game and scoring.

Niska's the first to spot C4 TOY.

Mia smiles, "Well done Nis. I hope they're just a demolition expert!"

Sophie makes them all aware that she can't see much from the back of the car.

"We're not moving, why not stand up and look between Niska and I? That would be okay wouldn't it Mattie?"

"Sure."

Ten minutes later Sophie's jumping up and down "I've got one! Look!" she points to the car indicating to turn into their road. "FR13OZN - FROZEN 1."

"Wow Teeny, I'm impressed!"

Mia is watching, "You might not believe this! Look at the car behind it. Your Disney theme continues!"

Sophie looks at the reg and frowns. "Is it phone ethics?"

"Phonetics" corrects Mattie, "I think it might be, don't see it myself."

Mia tracks the now moving car, "Yes Sophie, look, SL02TAF. The 2 sounds like T O to, the T like T E A tea, so mix it all around and we get Olafs To Tea"

"You're good at this game Mia!"

Niska points to an approaching car, "There's another easy one"

Sophie reads it out "DA1SYP. Daisy P", giggles, "Do you think she needs the toilet a lot?"

Mattie sees a familiar one approaching, "There's an easy one, DC1!"

Sophie waves towards Danny, "I like this game, I'm going to tell Mummy and Daddy so they know how to play too."

Danny pulls up behind them and gets out. Mia opens the drivers door.

Danny is smiling, "I've been on the phone the last 15 minutes. Lexus sends their apologies, even though it's not really their fault but mine. They'd taken my wiring loom diagram literally, I'd accidentally typed a decimal point when I shouldn't have. They don't install wires only rated for one amp, so put in the next best thing. I should have typed 10."

Mattie taps Sophie on the shoulder, asks if she can get forward.

She leans past Mia, "What's going to happen Dan?"

"They're bringing a recovery lorry to take DC2 back to the workshop. I've got my bike in the back of mine. You're going to the track in DC1 and I'll pedal home, wait for DC2 to be returned. They say it should be a quick job, are making up the new loom as we speak."

"You sure? Your baby?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm sure Mia will take great care of her." he walks to his car, has used his remote to open the boot. The four watch him take his bike out of the back.

Mattie breaks the silence, "Time to switch cars ladies."

Sophie opens the door and jumps down onto the path, "Mattie can you bring my booster please?"

As Mattie gets Sophie's seat sorted out Danny gives Mia a quick run through of all his modifications. He then hands Mia his key. "Sorry for the delay ladies, enjoy your race."

As Mia drives away she looks at Mattie in the rear view mirror, "That was nice of Daniel, we need to get something to say thanks. I could see in his face that he wasn't totally comfortable with my driving his car."

Mattie turns around to see him in the distance, smiles, "He's on his bike doing tricks. I think he might have missed that, maybe we could get something bike related?"

Mia taps the control screen, "Danny told me he's got all our music on here, what would everyone like to listen to?"

A traffic warden gets a surprise a few minutes later when the four of them, with windows down, zip past singing "Money money money, must be funny" at the top of their lungs.

~~~

After getting through most of the ABBA tracks Mia announces that they're almost there.

At the main gate security welcome them, direct them to the car parking put aside for the event.

Mattie leads the group to the checkin desk, letter in hand. She's greeted by a silver haired man in red Ferrari driving suit. "Hello miss, here to race?"

"I'm a spectator, I've treated my friend Mia here to a drive." she hands over the letter.

The man looks up the number. "Were you aware of our promotion today with Nigel? An extra 75 pounds to charity gets you a family ticket and signed DVD."

"Signed DVD?"

"Yes, by Mr Mansell."

"Really?"

"Really. He's brought one of his cars over from Jersey. You know who I'm talking about?"

"Do I! My Dad will be gutted he wasn't here. He's got a signed DVD from years ago, he's a massive fan."

A voice behind her says "Glad to hear it!"

She turns to see a man smiling at her. In her head she imagines a moustache and makes the connection, blushes. "Mr Mansell, lovely to meet you! These are my friends Mia and Niska and sister Sophie."

Sophie tilts her head, "You don't look like your photo."

Nigel whips out a comb and holds it under his nose. Sophie giggles, "Now you do! Why did you shave it off?"

Nigel crouches down to get to Sophie's height, "That's a very good question young lady. There are a lot of reasons. I'll tell you over a hot chocolate when your sister is waiting with you in the VIP observers lounge. Assuming you all upgrade to the family ticket. All got your drivers licenses with you?"

Mia says yes, Niska says no.

Mattie shrugs, "I've got my provisional."

"Can you all drive?" he looks around them all "It's a private track, so it's up to us. I was trying to see if you all drive. Going to upgrade?"

Mattie looks uncertain, "I don't think I'm experienced enough."

"But you can drive though?"

All but Sophie say "Yes."

Mattie adds "Not officially though."

"Then I'll take you out and put you to the test."

"You'd do that for me?" asks Mattie.

Nigel still crouched down has seen the letter in her hand. "Yes. But to be honest it's not special treatment just for you. I'm reasonably sure the car you've picked is one from my private collection."

"Dads going to be doubly kicking himself! 75 quid? Where do we upgrade?"

Nigel tells Mattie how to get to the ticket counter. He looks at Mia, "Are you more experienced?"

She smiles, "I've studied most of your race data and I've memorised the track. I know how to drift a car too. Four wheel drive or two."

"That I'd like to see!"

Niska smiles, "My sister doesn't exaggerate."

Nigel taps the side of his nose. "I'm not a betting man, but see the gentleman in the tweed jacket? He is. If your friend here is that good maybe you can win your entry fee back and then some."

Mattie returns with the new tickets, is stuffing the receipt into her purse.

Sophie looks at the ground. "I'm too little to drive."

Nigel says he'll be back in a moment and hurries off.

Niska smiles, "Do you have fifty pounds I could borrow please Mattie?"

"Sure, what for?"

"A little wager."

Niska takes the money and walks over to the man Nigel had pointed out. They can't hear what's being said, see a lot of shaking of his head, plenty arm waving.

A few minutes later and she returns. "We're on."

Nigel returns with three driving suits and shoes. "Want to get changed ladies? I suggest Mattie goes first, Mia last."

Niska touches Nigel's arm, looks lovingly into his eyes. "Thank you for the tip Nigel. I think we'll enjoy this."

Mattie has a serious case of the butterflies. Nigel is sat next to her, also in a helmet. "Right Mattie, first bit of important information is about the gears. You'll notice from the knob that reverse is top left, fifth bottom right. That can confuse a lot of drivers used to fifth top right and reverse below it. It also puts first gear in an awkward place for many. Want to have a practice with the engine off?"

Mattie nods.

"Okay clutch down". Nigel calls out a number of random gears and Mattie gets them all.

"You've not driven a car with a box like this before have you?"

"Only game simulations at the arcade with family and friends."

"That would explain it. Simulator or real car doesn't matter, knowing the gears is what we want. Perfect. If you could check it's in neutral and start the engine."

Mattie does as asked.

"Now gently push the accelerator, get a feel for its sensitivity. Don't rev it too high though."

Again Mattie follows his instructions.

"The next bit can't be done without moving. Take the handbrake off, put it in first and very slowly release the clutch, see if you can feel when it's biting. When it does put the clutch down again and repeat a few times."

Mattie lifts the clutch a bit too fast without high revs and stalls the engine. "Sorry!"

"Don't worry, you're doing fine. Start her up again and give it another try."

Mattie does better the next attempt, the car slowly edges forward.

"Okay. Let's try lap number one."

"O.M.G this is unreal!"

Mattie pulls away, Nigel starts pointing out spots around the track to aim for. Her confidence grows, by the end of the first lap she's got more comfortable with the clutch and gear changes.

Nigel's having to talk loudly, almost shout. "Let's see if you can perfect your racing line."

"My What?"

"The way you try to straighten out curves."

"Oh that! Dad does that through one of our local mini roundabouts. Mums always telling him off for going over the bricked bit at the outside. He says mini roundabouts are more about protocol."

Nigel laughs, "Tell your father I'm on his side. Okay, next lap go for it, I'll let you know which corners."

Mattie cuts one a bit too much, feels the car bounce a bit on the track edge.

"Don't worry, you're still good, foot down for the straight, give it some welly!"

Mattie does as asked, Nigel shouting "Change up!" several times. Then "Start breaking, change down, down again, FASTER! Down again, once more, through the chicane, now floor it!"

Mattie laughs "My knuckles have gone totally white!"

"Don't grip quite so hard!"

Nigel's instructions continue, Mattie getting faster and faster. There's a screech of tyres and the car leans heavily "Careful! Not too fast on the bend, she'll kick out!"

Another lap and Mattie's told she's done her six. It's all over way too fast for her. "Oh my God that was AWESOME!"

"I'm glad you liked it. If you're as good with your highway code I think you'll pass first time."

"Really?"

"Sure. You're quite a natural."

Mattie laughs. "If you think I'm a natural you'll need a new word for Mia."

"Let's get your friend Niska down here and see how she does."

~~~

Mattie leaves Nigel and goes to tell Niska it's her turn. She finds the two sisters doing a long head bump. Bump over she tells Niska that Nigel is waiting for her down on the track.

"Thanks Mattie. You were great. The guys up here were quite impressed with your speed on the straight."

"It's awesome! I'm still buzzing now."

Mia looks to her sister, "Good luck Nis", winks. Niska heads for the stairs.

Mattie turns to Mia, "Why the wink?"

Mia grins, "You know the last Star Trek movie we watched with Toby and Holly-Anne, the one where Spock does a mind meld?"

Mattie's eyes widen and a massive smile appears "You didn't! Frigging hell this is going to be one to watch!"

"So you told.." Sophie starts.

Mattie cuts her off, "Teeny, this is our little secret, lets keep it between us eh?"

They watch Niska walk onto the track, again put her hand on Nigel's arm and are surprised to see her kiss him on the cheek.

"I think my sister has a crush on Mr Mansell!"

They watch the two put on their helmets and get into the car.

~~~

Nigel points out the gears, Niska says she's fully aware of the car specifications and handling.

"So you've driven one of these before?"

"No."

"So how have you come to know about it so well?"

Niska has a subtle smile, "I have a few special talents."

"Do your friends have any nicknames for you because of your talents?"

"A few, but my favourite is The Ninja!"

"Okay Ninja Niska, let's see how you do with your first lap."

Niska still looking across at Nigel puts the car in gear and pulls away extremely fast with minimal loss of traction. She's still looking across at Nigel, several gear changes later when she takes the first corner. Perfectly.

Nigel laughs, "Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be the student enjoying the ride today?"

Niska's drifting around one of the tracks tighter corners has Nigel shouting like a child, enjoying the rush. "I think we'll need new tyres if your sister is anywhere close to as good as you!"

Nis grins, "Oh don't worry, we're two peas from the same pod. I'm expecting a good return on my bet, we'll cover the cost of new tyres and a spare for you."

Nigel is laughing, "This is crazy!"

Niska eases up on the accelerator.

He looks across at her, "Don't back off! Keep going!"

~~~

A man with a large Alsatian walks over to join them, says "Hi ladies, I'm Leo. You're all giving my Dad a lovely time, I've not seen him smile quite like that in ages."

Mattie turns to see him, is glad he looks nothing like her Leo. "Hi, I'm Mattie. My partner's also called Leo."

"399th most popular name in the 1980s. I've met quite a few Leos my age now. Thought it would be quite a unique name when I was younger. Is he here?"

"No, girls day out."

"At a race track? That's unusual. We're honoured."

He looks down at Sophie. "Don't worry miss, Geisha won't bite while she's with me and everyone is behaving."

Sophie hasn't seen a dog that size before, is initially rather scared.

Mattie frown, "Behaving?"

"Yes, Dad got her, she's a trained protection dog. Off duty she's quite lovely. She doesn't get out of Jersey much."

He turns to Mia, "You're the last to drive from your team. Mattie was okay, I'm guessing a new driver, your friend out on the track might as well be The Stig. Are you a driver?"

Mia pulls out the gift Sophie had bought her and smiles.

"Ah. Something tells me you'll be good. I'll warn security."

Mattie scrunches her face up. "What? Why warn security?"

"Your friend placed a bet didn't she?"

"Yeah."

"With the most thick headed male chauvinist pig in motor racing. I wish they'd ban him. There's going to be a scene, I just know it. I'll go down to the track so Geisha doesn't see it. I don't want her getting agitated."

Mia sees Nis doing her final lap, starts putting on the gloves. "I'm up soon, I'll head down to the track." she waves her fingers about, the fit of the gloves is perfect. "Thank you for these Little Mouse, I love them. See you in a bit."

Sophie gives her a hug around the waist. "Have fun Mia!"

~~~

Sophie and Mattie watch the two sisters standing on the track, they do a brief head bump. Sophie catches Mattie's eye and does a wink. "I think Mia will be good, don't you Mattie?"

"Hope so Teeny."

~~~

Niska joins them, grinning away. "Snooze you lose!"

Mattie had heard the expression before, couldn't immediately place it.

"You liked Nigel then Nis?"

"Yes. Apart from Odi it seams I'm attracted to nice older men."

Sophie grabs Niska's hand. "You were amazing Nis! I didn't know you could drive like that!"

Niska squats down beside her, gets her mouth next to Sophie's ear and whispers "Don't tell anyone but neither did I! It will be our little secret. Just the four of us to know it for the moment okay?"

The man in the tweed jacket appears. "You're a professional racing driver aren't you! This is an outrage! A fix! The bet's off!"

Niska stands, does her very best to remain calm and poised, there was a small crowd gathering. "My sister is about to drive. I'd like to watch. Please go back to where you were before. There was no question about experience, only that my party would set the best lap times for the event."

"But you've set a new track record! Fastest ever by any driver in that class, fun day or professional race!"

"In which case you better have your money ready."

Two security guards appear. "Do we have a problem miss?"

"Not unless the gentleman isn't carrying enough cash to fulfil his side of our bet."

The second guard steps forward. "Mr Smithe you've already had your second and final warning. Will we have a problem?"

"It's clearly a fix! No woman has ever driven that fast!"

Niska smiles ever so gently, her hand now slowly pulling down the zip to her overalls. "Would you all like me to strip off? You'll see I'm not a man."

The guard looks shocked. "That won't be necessary miss, we can see you're a lady. Mr Smithe is clearly no gentleman, just being stupid."

"You're calling a customer stupid?!"

"Yes sir, and I'll have great pleasure in throwing you out of our grounds if you continue to behave in this way."

"This is an outrage!"

"So you said sir."

Sophie pulls at Niska's overalls, she turns to look out of the window then turns back, her face now angry. "I'm missing my sisters drive! I wanted to see her start and now I've missed it!"

Sophie tugs again and Niska looks down. Sophie has her phone in her hand, video of Mia's start ready to play.

"Oh Sophie, you little angel!"

Mattie tells them both that she needs the ladies and runs from the room.

~~~

Toby answers her call.

"Where are you? Sounds like your in a small room?"

"Multitasking. I've got an idea. Remember how Teeny would stand behind the simulators while three of us raced and lean from side to side turning her arms?"

"Yeah."

"The seats slide forward don't they?"

"I think so?"

"Could you and Danny get over there and take a 3D scan of the pedals with his gadget?"

"Guess so, why?"

"I'd like Danny to print up some blocks to extend the peddles so Sophie can reach properly, she's a little bit too short."

"Great idea, I'll call him now!"

"Cheers KC."

"How's it going there? Everyone having fun?"

"Frigging awesome! Will tell you all about it when we're back. If Nis doesn't have a fight with some old git and get us arrested!"

"What?"

"He's trying to wriggle out of a bet. He'll have picked the wrong synth to do it with if he does!"

"Ha!"

"Got to go, I'm missing Mia driving."

"See you later."

~~~

Mia is drifting around a tight bend, the tyres screaming for forgiveness. Nigel looks at her, somewhat bemused. "You've never visited this track before you say? Except on an arcade machine and Google maps?"

"No. I've also watched every bit of cockpit footage on YouTube there is. It helped confirm the topography of each section of track. I've also researched all of the standard specifications of the car and most likely performance improvements you could have made."

"You came prepared then!"

Mia gets through the left-right-left-right-left of Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel corners with ease, had already been fiddling with the strap on her helmet. Nigel is looking a little worried, she'd done it with only one hand on the wheel. If asked he'd have said she was delicate or slender. But then her sister was nicknamed the Ninja. Maybe they did some martial arts that gave them strength without great bulk?

Mia pops the catch on the strap and pulls the helmet off. "Hold this please! Hangar Straight!" she does a good shake and her hair falls out of the loose plat she'd done.

"What are you doing!"

"I need to feel the wind in my hair!"

"You know I should be asking you to stop!"

"But you won't."

"As long as you're doing this almost perfect replica of your sisters path around the track. No."

"Thank you Nigel."

"Have you ever had an accident?"

"Only when I was run down by a van saving Mattie's brother from harm."

"Lots of broken bones?"

"No, just a few cuts. Mattie's father applied a few skin pat.. plasters."

"So the driver was going slow?"

"No, approximately 37mph."

"That doesn't sound very approximate?"

"Sorry, 37.482mph"

"How could you possibly know that?"

"My sister and I study things in great detail. You could say we're obsessed with details."

"Is there anything you can't do?"

Mia kills the conversation for a full lap when she turns to look at him with a sad face, replies "Bear children."

When Mia comes close to crossing the finish line for the penultimate lap he thumps the dash. "You're practically a carbon copy of your sister driving wise. Tenths of a second between you I'd bet. Maybe just hundredths. Go for it. Really go for it!"

~~~

As Mia gets out of the car she looks up to the viewing gallery to see Sophie jumping up and down and waving. Nigel sees her, "She's quite a fan isn't she?"

"Little Mouse is very special."

"Three more drivers and I'll see you upstairs, thanks Mia."

Nigel welcomes the next driver, a strapping young man with flowing blonde hair. Mia is reminded of James Hunt and stops to see how well he'll get off the starting line. He's very good, but not brilliant.

~~~

Niska smiles, asks the guards that had remained on the floor if they'd like to accompany her. Mattie steps forward.

"Nis, why would you need a guard, you only placed a 50 pound bet?"

"No, I didn't."

"Huh?"

"Your 50 topped up cash I'd brought along."

"You had money too? How much did you bet?"

"Ten times that."

"FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS! If I didn't know you I'd be asking are you nuts!" She grins like she's got a flip top head.

"What odds did he give you?"

"50 to 1 for me getting the top time."

"Wow!"

"Then 200 to 1 for us getting in the top three times."

"You came second, Mia first!"

"Exactly"

"Frigging hell!"

Mattie takes a few seconds to make sure she's got the right number of zeros. "One hundred grand! Frigging frigging frigging hells bells! No wonder he's hopping mad!"

"Let's get this over with."

The security guards follow, in part to keep them from fighting, in part for their own personal amusement. The two had received so many complaints over the last few years and were fed up with having to deal with his bad behaviour. Others he'd messed around hadn't wanted to log complaints so officially banning him had proved impossible. His constant trying to turn the tables saying he'd sue for harassment hadn't helped either. He knew how the system worked and used it to his full unfair advantage.

"Mr Smithe, we have someone to see you."

"Ah. Yes. I don't carry that much cash."

Niska wishes it was only the two of them stood in the room. She'd vent sonically and let him know how she felt inside. Instead she kept a beautiful calm composure. "Then you should have not accepted the bet. And it was you that set the odds sir, not I."

The shorter of the two guards, still way taller than Mattie rubs his chin. "So how do we resolve this? Third strike you're out. And every track will get to know and likely do the same."

Mattie raises a hand, "Online banking? Credit Cards? Cheque? Cash? A mix of all four?"

Mr Smithe pulls a sour face "Thank you!"

Mattie pulls a sarcastic reply one "Welcome!"

The security guards step back a few paces. "One moment."

One has a chat on his lapel radio mic to someone unseen. Then talks in a hushed voice to his colleague.

A minute later they rejoin the group.

"The bank came to refill the ATM on Thursday afternoon. You can draw 400 Pounds per transaction."

Mr Smithe smiles, "Sorry ladies, I'll have to IOU the rest."

The guard rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "The 400 is a physical limit. It can't get more than that through the slot in one go. You'll just have to ask for that amount two hundred and fifty times."

Mr smithe's face drops "That would take hours man!"

"We're in no hurry, are we Tom?"

Tom rubs his shaved head and says sarcastically "Well I was going to wash and condition my hair tonight but it can wait", getting a giggle from Sophie, "I'll see if the gift shop have one of those nice Ferrari branded sports bags for you miss."

Mattie pulls out her purse, Tom puts up a hand. "It's on me miss. This story will get me countless pints in the bar for years to come. Bill, keep an eye on him mate."

While Tom goes to the shop his partner does some mental arithmetic. "I think you can keep answering Yes to the Another Service prompt and ask for four hundred each time. Each transaction should take no more than ten seconds as the ATM won't have timed out the phone link and hung up. So ten seconds two fifty times. A bit over forty minutes?"

Mr Smithe isn't giving up. "I don't keep that sort of money in cash accounts."

Bill's a bit sharper, a poker player, has been watching the mans tiny tells that give his game away, knows how to read the ones about to come. "Thanks for letting us know it's in your savings account." tell spotted. "You can use our office PC to access your online banking and transfer it."

"I can't remember my pin". Another tell.

"You're lying. I'm getting tired of this."

Niska taps Bill on the shoulder. "Bill, may I?". She reaches out for the biro in his uniform chest pocket, stops just before touching, waiting for confirmation.

"Sure, be my guest!"

"Is that wall over there plasterboard?"

"Dry wall? Yes, sure it is."

Niska flicks her hand out so fast it's a blur. There's a small thud noise as the biro embeds its head in the wall.

There's a voice behind her "So that's why they call you Ninja! Hello Niska, everything okay?"

She turns to see Nigel, "Yes thanks! Mr Smithe here was just off to transfer some money."

Mr Smithe finally admits defeat and heads to the office with Bill.

Nigel smiles "So have you all enjoyed your time with us?"

He gets nods and thanks from them all.

"How about a team photo by the car?"

Mia smiles, "We'd like that."

"Leave the money collection with Tom and Bill, they're very trustworthy."

~~~

When they get to the track they see Leo giving Geisha a good rub down. He looks up, "Hi Ladies. How did it go?"

Niska smiles "Great eventually."

Nigel asks one of the marshals if he can take photos for them. They all get their phones out, agree Leo's has the best camera. Leo looks around the group. "I can email it on, who's do I use?"

Mattie offers hers.

They all get together, Mattie crouched down with Sophie and Geisha in the front row, Niska, Mia, Nigel and Leo behind, the car to the side.

"Smile! I think someone blinked, once more."

Leo takes the camera, "Great!"

Nigel takes a look, "Can you get that to the press office Leo? Ask them to rush a few copies in A4 please? One for their wall, one for Mia, one for us. Bigger if they have the paper?"

"Sure Dad."

Nigel turns to Sophie. "I think I owe you a hot chocolate miss. Coming?"

The four follow Nigel back to the viewing gallery. Mr Smithe is thankfully nowhere to be seen.

They chat for a while, Nigel enthusing about the ladies driving skills, how he misses being in F1, but not missing the issues he'd had with the press.

Leo joins them with nice big prints and some marker pens.

Nigel takes one of the prints and hands it to Mia with a pen. "If you could?"

"You want me to sign it?"

"You did set a new track record!"

He then passes it to Niska. Leo steps forward and whispers something into his fathers ear, quickly shows him his phone.

The print is then passed to Mattie.

"I'm sure I didn't set any records, unless you've got one for slowest lap!"

"I'd like your signature on it Matilda Hawkins. And yours Sophie"

Leo flashes the phone, an image of her and Leo from the Award ceremony.

"Where'd that come from?"

"One of my press contacts. I thought I knew your face from somewhere, MMS'ed them a snap and asked them to see if you were on file."

"I'm on file?"

"Sure are. Didn't you know? Who's your agent?"

"Agent?"

"You don't have a publicity agent?"

"No?"

"So who vets which images get into print?"

"What images?"

Leo smiles and shakes his head, "Let me email you something tomorrow."

"Thanks."

Nigel signs the remaining photo and hands it to Mia. Mia passes it to Mattie, "Can you put it up on your wall at home with the convention photos please Mattie?"

Mattie nods, is about to answer.

"Miss?". Tom is back with a bag. "The money."

Niska places the bag on the floor and zips it open, looks at the bundles of cash. "You put elastic bands around them?"

"We thought letting it all slide around in the bag wasn't a good idea."

Niska puts a hand in and pulls out a bundle. "That was very thoughtful of you both. For you and Bill."

"I can't accept that!"

"Sure you can. Over four pounds a pint? That's less than fifty pints each. For when you don't have customers about to share your story with."

"Thanks!"

She reaches in and pulls out another five, holds them out to Nigel. "For new tyres. Thanks that was a LOT of fun!"

"That's too much Niska."

"Then keep the change for spares. They'll wear out eventually."

She pulls out one more and gently throws it to Mattie. "For this evening's entertainment". Seeing Mattie's eyebrows start to move she adds "Toby couldn't get through earlier, told me your idea. They'll see us there."

"This evening? The designs are done already?"

"Yes, printing now."

"Wow, Great!"

She zips up the bag and smiles at the younger man. "Can you tell me your WiFi password please?"

Leo frowns, "Er, sure. It's the clubs. Think I've got it". He checks his phone and looks at Niska. "Found it. Got a phone or tablet?"

Nis gets her phone out and pretends to enter the password as he reads it out. She turns her back to them and looks out the window, accessing the Internet.

"Everything okay?" he asks.

Niska doesn't turn to see them, just looks around the track, "Wonderful."

Leo turns to Mattie and Mia and whispers "Is she really alright?"

Mattie shrugs.

Sophie knows what's going on. "She's okay."

Niska turns and walks to the bag, zips it up. She stands up and holds it out at arms length to Nigel. "You know what to do with it."

"I don't understand you Niska?"

"UK Youth. Get some of them learning to race, get a little cart, just for them. Make sure the girls get an equal opportunity."

Nigel is stunned into silence.

"Dad? You okay?"

Niska pulls his hand forward and wraps his fingers around the handle, gives him another peck on the cheek. "Thanks again, we all had a great time."

Mattie has a good chuckle, "If there was ever any doubt about Niska having the ability to be nice.."

~~~

Danny spins his chair while Toby watches the printer head move around and around laying down another layer of molten plastic. "Tobs, shall we head to the arcade when it's done, have a few games before they meet us there?"

"Sure. How long will it take to fit the bolts?"

"You can do it while I drive, shouldn't take long at all."

Toby looks up for a moment, "Cool, I think it's only got a few layers left to do now. Where are the nuts and bolts?"

Danny leg breaks his spin and jumps out of the chair, pulls a draw out. Inside there are a lot of nested trays. He takes a handful and drops them and some wing nuts into a bag. "When it's finished pull the clips off, we'll let it cool en-route"

~~~

In the car Danny keeps the music off, lets Toby hear the cracking noises as the print cools and separated itself from the glass.

"It should practically fall off now."

Toby touches the print and it slides to the edge. "Now what?"

Danny manoeuvres around a dust cart cleaning leaves off the road. "Snap it."

"You want me to break it?"

"Yes." Danny glances over for a second to see Toby. "You need to snap the tops and retaining brackets off the raft."

Toby turns the print around in his hands. "Ah, I see what you're talking about.". He pulls hard and the first part snaps off. The second and third also come off easily. The fourth is being difficult.

Danny turns into the road for the arcade. "Fold up the raft, let it snap in bits."

~~~

Up in the arcade they wait twenty minutes for a group of boys to finish a couple of games. Toby checks his phone. "Matties got the message, Mia is saying they'll be here in about fifty minutes."

"Cool, I need the loo, back in a sec."

Toby has the parts together and is on his knees doing a test fit.

"You'll have to leave!"

Toby twists to see who is talking.

"Hi."

"We spotted you with something earlier, trying to get the coins out no doubt so you're banned."

Toby turns back to the pedals and finishes the job.

"Oi! I was talking to you, don't ignore me!"

Toby gets up and points "Brilliant coin remover! Take a look!"

"Did you hear what I said a moment ago?"

"Yes. But you've got the wrong end of the stick. Take a look."

The man looks down. "What? You got a midget or something?"

Toby roles his eyes. "No, a younger sister who wants to join in but can't quite reach the peddles." he checks the time. "she'll be here in about half an hour with my older sister and her friends."

"Oh. Take it off until she's here."

The man walks off.

"What? No apology, please or thank you? Tosser!"

Danny returns and challenges Toby to a game on the old X-Wing machine. After the first game Danny gets out his pocket toolkit and finds the small alan key for grub screws. "Use the force Luke?"

Toby grins "I did, it broke!"

"Stand behind me so the woman at the change counter can't see me working mate." Danny quickly removes the grub screw, applies a drop of lock tight and refits the part. "Done."

"Danny, wouldn't it be easier to just give them an official maintenance contract?"

"Tried and failed. The owner's nephew has it. The muppet doesn't check his peoples work."

"But that's got to be what, the twenty somethingth repair you've sneaked in?"

"I guess?"

"Much as I love that you're helping keep the machines running you're making him look good when he's crap!"

"True."

"You should stop for a bit."

"But it would spoil our visits after a while."

"Only short term hopefully."

"Ok. Let's see. Let's keep a log too."

Toby starts another game. "That's way better, it's not turning in my hand." After a while he steps to the side. "Your go!"

Danny gets a new Top Score, is still in game. "Result!"

"Hello Toby! Hello Danny!"

"Hi Sophie."

Sophie knows the routine. Talk is fine. Taking your eyes off the game costs lives.

"Mattie, Mia and Niska are here too."

"Cool, how was the driving?"

"Mattie, Niska and Mia were brilliant! They beat all the men! We got a signed photo with Nigel. And they got to keep their racing clothes, are still in them!"

Danny takes his eyes off the screen to look at Sophie. "Nigel who?"

"Mr Mansell"

"Wow! Does your Dad know yet?"

"Not yet. Mum and Dad are coming after work."

There's a sound of a crash and explosion.

Danny's mind returns to the game too late. GAME OVER. "Fu. udge"

Toby chuckles. "Saw that coming! Hey Teeny, we've got a surprise for you, go queue at the car simulator, we'll join you in a minute."

Two of the three seats are occupied, Toby gets to work on the middle one, finding working in the cramped space difficult.

"So this is your sister. I remember you all being here before now. Sorry about earlier."

Toby is stuck, can't turn to see but recognises the voice. "Sorry, can't get up easily, bit stuck at the moment! You there Dan?"

"Yes, want a hand up?"

"I need a spare wing nut first. I've dropped one and can't find it, can't reach my pocket either."

"You've got them all mate."

"Bugger. Is Sophie there?"

"Yes Toby I'm here."

"Can you reach my jacket pocket?"

"Yes."

"There's a bag in there with nuts and bolts, can you grab a couple and drop them into my hand?"

Sophie gets them out, climbs up onto the seat from the other side and kneels down. "Ready Toby?"

He holds his hand out. Sophie misses first attempt but lands one right in the middle of his palm next attempt. Toby snaps his hand into a fist as soon as he feels it land. "Got it!"

A minute later he says he's done, can someone help get him up. He feels hands under his arm and his weight coming off the floor.

As he clears the chair bases and is able to turn he realises it's Mia doing the work. There faces are now incredibly close. Toby fights his instincts. "Um, thanks Mia, good day?"

"I think you'd call it awesome!"

"Sweet! Ready for some more fun?"

"Definitely!"

Toby now on his feet brushes off his trousers. "So who's the first to race against Sophie?"

"What you were doing was for me?"

"Yeah, it was Mattie's idea, she called us from the event with the idea."

Sophie raps her arms around Mattie for a hug. "By bad ass big sister is brilliant!"

"Teeny, how about I go change some of these twenties into pound coins while Mia and Nis give you some quick driving lessons? Tobs, got a few coins you can lend us?"

Sophie is flanked by the sisters, giggling as she cuts a corner tight, the games mechanism vibrating the steering wheel. "This is fun!"

Mia doesn't take her eyes off the track, "It would appear that the Hawkins sisters are natural drivers. What are you like Toby?"

"Not bad. If Nis lets me take her seat for the next game I'll show you."

"Hello potato, are you winning?"

Sophie doesn't take her eyes off the screen for even a second, a look of total concentration on her face. "Hi Mum, did you bring Dad and Leo?"

The men say "Hi Soph."

Mia gives up her seat so Joe and Toby can give Sophie a race. Then Leo and Danny, Laura and Niska.

Mattie's phone chimes, an email from Leo. She reads it and smiles. "Nis, Leo says the cart is going to be called The Ninja. He's also questioning if you'd like to be an advanced driving instructor!"

"I did what?"

"Not you BB, another Leo."

"Oh, okay."

"He's going to name the cart after me? That's nice of him. I'll have a think about the job."

"Mia, is the print in the car?"

"Yes. The keys are in my jacket if you want to get it."

"Thanks."

Danny gets keys out of his pocket. "I'll come with you."

Mattie goes to ask why then realises what he might be wanting to do.

In the stair well Danny asks "Are you calling Leo Baby?"

"Baby? Why would .. Oh. No. B B. As in Bionic Bunny!"

"I get it. Did Fred work out what happened?"

"Yes. It seems that if Leo thinks about running hard enough his digital part diverts power into the implants instead of take power from them. And the next thing you know he's a super sprinter."

"I bet that drains his power reserves very fast!"

"Yup. We think ten minutes of running and he'd be out cold."

At the cars Toby takes the keys for DC2 and helps shift Sophie's booster. "I'll go park it up at home and get a cab back. We don't want Toby seeing it yet."

Back upstairs Toby asks Mattie where Dan is. She plays it calm, "Just sorting out a car issue, back soon. Hay Dad, take a look at this."

Joe's checking out the large print, seeing his daughters and the sisters. "You all look rather happy, had a great time by the look of those smiles. The man third from the left, he looks like.." Joe looks up at the thick black pen signature filling the right hand corner. "Nigel?! You met Nigel?!"

"Didn't just meet him Dad, he was our instructor."

Joe runs a hand through his hair, "Whaaa". He finds something to sit on and flops down. "You spent the day with my hero!"

"He thinks I'm quite good at driving Dad."

The next few sounds to come out of her father are all gibberish.

The boys suggest they call into the T.G.I Friday over the road for dinner. Joe is still a bit shocked that he'd missed an opportunity to drive with his hero, but is quietly proud that his daughter had the chance.

~~~

Mattie's evening comes down with a bump. Leo has a major headache, he says it's like a corrupted WiFi share but worse.

Mattie checks with Fred and Max, heads next door and is told Cindy and Mia are fine. Odi is on his way to the theatre with Nis, she says they're both okay. Mattie calls Pete, Karen's fine too.

Mattie convinces Joe to give her some of his higher dose codeine. He'd had some left from when he'd torn a muscle trying to race Toby without a proper warm up.

"Hi Leo, take one of these and snuggle up behind me."

Leo's dream takes a new turn. Strange lights and noises. He hears himself think "I never took LSD is this what a trip is like?"

In the dream his vision is replaced with static like on an old untuned TV, popular in the few horror films they'd watched. Everything fades out to white. It fades in again for a moment then back out. It fades back in, the noise gone, replaced by an out of focus image. Things slowly resolve, he can make out rough shapes.

The shapes are still blurred, sound clearer.

"He's coming round again."

"David?? Is that you?. Heaven exists?"

"Hopefully you don't think it's hell."

"Edwin? Are you dead too? Edwin? David? What's going on? I was shot through the kidney, why does my head and hip hurt?"

In the dream Leo sits up, sees his own hands, he's still dressed, can see his trousers and boots. Yet when he looks over to his side he sees George's face looking back in the reflection."

"You okay Leo? Bad dream again?"

"Huh?"

"You just punched me in the back"

"Did I? I'm sorry. Weird just got weirder."


	24. Chapter 24

Nine weeks later and things have changed drastically. For the worse. Leo isn't eating much, is stressed, not able to keep any food down. His previously fine physical state has deteriorated. The nightmares return as soon as he gets to sleep, so he fights sleep, making him too weak to function properly. Three days ago Fred had to operate again, this time implanting an induction loop like the ones in the rucksacks, help keep Leo topped up.

With Fred's continued work in DC Ltd's medical devision, Laura's firm had put one of their best specialists on a case with Laura. They'd helped cut through mountains of red tape to get a new specialist centre open. It had one operating theatre and recovery beds for three patients. One surgeon, Fred, and six nurses covering 24 hour shifts. Fred was very much in demand, people referring cases were amputation was under consideration.

Leo wakes from an odd dream again, pulls the charging loop from his hip. "Why'd he do it?"

Mattie's already awake, doing something on her phone, looking a bit preoccupied, her earbuds in and typing. "Why did who do what?"

"My father. Why'd he bring me back? It's not as if he spent time with me."

"Just knowing you were there may have been enough?"

She continuously presses the pause/play button on the wires remote, swipes the screen now and then. Leo rest his head on the pillow, watches her for ten minutes, just happy to see her concentration. He'd not seen her at uni, wondered if she was as focused with her studies. Mattie pulled out the earbuds and put down the phone.

"What were you writing?"

"Some song lyrics that I love."

"Why?"

"Why type them out?"

Leo smiles, "No, why do you love them?"

"Because they say what I'm feeling"

"About?"

"You."

Leo's unsure what to say.

"Would you like me to read it to you?"

"Sure."

She picks the phone back up.

"I will never forget you. You will always be by my side. From the day that I met you I knew that I would love you 'til the day I die. And I will never want much more. And in my heart, I will always be sure. I will never forget you. And you will always be by my side Til the day I die."

Leo looks at her with a sad expression, a tear rolling down his face, his breathing unsteady. "I feel the same, only I think you've got it back to front. You'll be at my side when I die."

Mattie already tired and emotional can't hold back. The tears start to flow. "Let's make a pact. We'll both do whatever we can to help each other live forever, so neither of us has to say goodbye." she uses the palm of her hand to wipe away tears.

Leo doesn't say anything, just slowly and shakily moves closer, gently kisses his fiance on the lips. Mattie pushes him backwards, down onto the bed. "Rest up."

She bends a leg slightly over his, wraps an arm around his chest. "'Never Forget You' by MNEK and Zara Larsson, if you want it for your phone. Which knowing you" she does a massive yawn, "as I do now, I suspect you will."

Leo wraps one arm around her and caresses her face with his free hand.

He soon realises she's fallen asleep in his embrace. Having got his head around her schedule he lets her sleep for an hour.

When she stirs Leo's got a question for her. "When I asked you to marry me I'd made the assumption you'd be miles away, living in a dorm with other students."

"Hmm?"

"But you're here in London, living with me."

"Mmm."

"What would you say to knocking six years off the engagement?"

Mattie squeezes him tight, lifts her head and pulls herself forward to kiss, gives a very sleepy "Yes!" mid yawn.

~~~

The professor puts his chalk down, watches a student trying to suppress yet another yawn. "I cannot teach a mind that is not receptive. Whatever is keeping you awake at night miss Parks is your private matter. Your wanting to be asleep in my lecture hall is mine!"

It was infectious, Mattie held a book in front of her face, did a massive yawn then turned and winked.

"Don't think hiding behind a book will help miss Hawkins, the rest of you gave me enough body language. A friend of mine used to work for the London office of a Japanese bank. Their boss had them sign a register every morning saying they'd had eight hours sleep. Lying was a sackable offence. We don't want to start anything in anyway similar do we ladies?"

Mattie loves Leo dearly, wants to help. Needs to help, being woken by him so many times at night by his nightmares is impacting her studies.

"Do we ladies?"

"No sir" they chorus flatly.

Mattie looks across to the third student in the room.

"And I can read your mind miss Hawkins. Williams hasn't yawned once all term. And no, he's not a synth!"

~~~

In the common room after the lecture Mattie opens a browser and starts some research. On nightmares, stress, symptoms. She can find all sorts of things on nightmares and possible causes, some on post traumatic stress disorder and medical assisted therapy. Nothing that joins all of the dots into a cohesive whole. She had something for a thesis, had she been doing the right courses. And some friends that would likely be willing subjects.

With one of those eureka moments a working title came to mind. She starts a doc so she doesn't forget it.

'The dreams and nightmares of machines and men'

Underneath the title she types PTSD.

Her searching finds a link to a twenty minute video on a lady that had been suffering for many years, all triggered by accidents not of her making. Her cure had come in the form of medical grade drug used in clubs. Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. MDMA. The active ingredient in Ecstasy. The lady in the video stressed that it needed to be prescribed in a very controlled environment to ensure the mind was helped in the right direction.

There was a shocking statistic in a text summary at the end of the video. An average of 22 veterans from all wars, not just current conflicts, take their own life every day. That was the equivalent of her sixth form class! Every single day!

"Frigging hell!"

The other students look up from their reading.

"Sorry, just seen a horrible statistic."

They return to their studies, not seeming interested in what it might have related to. Mattie copies a few bits from the Wikipedia page. Twenty two a day. Hell. She puts in her earbuds, taps their playlist, stares out of the window. She watches two magpies on a distant lawn, thinks about how they mate for life, how she wanted to be Leo's bird, them become a pair of magpies collecting shiny things together. She watches the two jumping and flying around. An hour or more passes, all sense of time lost. The track changes to one she'd not heard before. It's got an unusual intro, a falling tone and drum beat, like a musical splashdown, definitely not your usual pop song. She looks down at the phone to read the track name. Signal to Noise. She kicks herself for forgetting to check it out after Leo had told her about it. She closes her eyes and concentrates on this favourite of his. Towards the end of the track the music is building to a big crescendo, Peter is singing "wipe out the noise, you know that's it, you know that's it, receive and transmit."

Mattie shakes, like someone had stepped over her grave. Transmission received. As if she'd been wired to a video feed from the future Mattie could see exactly what needed to be done. Receive and Transmit! It would take a lot of work. A hell of a lot. Where had this tsunami of ideas come from? Had they been queuing up patiently in her subconscious, waiting for the doors to her conscious self to be thrown wide open?

She types like she's possessed, getting all the ideas down before they have a chance to fly from her mind.

One of the other students walks over, places a hand on Mattie's shoulder. "Mattie?"

Mattie pulls out an ear bud. "Hi?"

"I said I'm making some fresh ground coffee, did you fancy a cup?"

"Oh, sorry, had a bit of a tunnel vision thing going on. Yes please, Caitlin isn't it?"

"Yes Mattie. Thanks, most people want to call me Catherine for months."

"I've got a couple more things to get in this doc before I forget them, fancy a chat when I'm done?"

"Sure, I'll go make the coffee."

Caitlin has a boyfriend, is missing him a lot, he's in Dublin working. Although it's in no way her fault Mattie feels a little guilty for having the pleasure of Leo being around. She sits with her for half an hour chatting away. Caitlin thanks her, says she feels a bit more positive, needs to get to her next lecture.

Mattie locks the slate, leaves the room soon after. She sees lights on through the stippled glass, knocks twice.

"Come in."

She hesitates for a second, no, this was the right thing to do, opens the door.

"Hello miss Hawkins, how are you?"

"Exhausted."

"I'd noticed, was wondering how to raise the subject."

Mattie shows her professor the title to her new document. "I have lots of free periods. I was wondering if I could sit in on some psychology lectures?"

"You know miss Hawkins, that makes me really annoyed!"

Mattie looks shocked, looks like she'll burst into tears. She's drained physically, trying not to let her period pains rule her life, emotionally drained by her worrying for Leo.

"Annoyed that we hadn't thought of it ourselves!". He opens a desk draw and pulls out a folder. "How can your AI studies and research possibly reach their maximum potential without it!"

He sees what his earlier comment had done and opens another draw, "Apologies, I should have phrased my earlier statement better, I hadn't meant to upset you", he gets out a box of tissues, passes them to her.

He sits silently working things out with a pencil for a while, then looks up. "Our small class size has worked to your advantage. I think we can jiggle a few lecture slots around allowing all three of you to additionally take psychology. If Williams and Parks want to take it is up to them but I'd recommend they do. It would also help you to have some fellow students to bounce ideas off."

He looks down at her hands. "That is a beautiful rock on your finger miss Hawkins. Am I correct in suspecting your problem is Leo? Or rather sleep problems he's having?"

Mattie had forgotten just how much he knew about the two families.

"Can I suggest you move into another room and let one of his siblings look after him? May I?". He reaches out a hand for her Slate.

Mattie unlocks it and passes it over.

He shakes his head. "Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. I thought I'd spotted that. Dangerous stuff if not used extremely carefully. Make sure you involve some of the medical professors if you go down that route. I'll give them a synopsis so they're not surprised should you make contact." He does a quick speed read of the rest of the document. "That's quite a list of items you have there. What inspired that?"

Mattie laughs, "I've seen the future, it's got lemon donuts."

The professor gives her an odd look.

"One of my fiances sisters bakes amazing cakes, I guess that and a lot of things going on in my friend Danny's company came together into a pretty vivid daydream."

~~~

Leo reluctantly agrees that Mattie should move into one of the other rooms, Mia will look over him at night. "It's not for long right?"

"Hopefully."

~~~

A month later and her teams paper is growing daily. With a good nights sleep every day she's full of beans and enthusiasm. She's now responsible for a team of 17 people that are all working towards getting it ready for publication. She'd not wanted 18 names on her paper, until her professor had whispered one day, "It would take you twenty years or more to amass the collective skills of this group, do you think Leo has the luxury of that much time?"

Of course not, he was in a downward spiral and had needed to pull up fast.

It was a collaborative effort. Mattie had to learn various team management skills fast, had made a few mistakes early on but had got past them. She has three people from the Medical dept, two from Robotics. Danny had been hired as a consultant, helping the four from the image processing lab who have an ex-Google employee as a professor. A growing number from her psychology class.

~~~

Leo is visiting again for another hardware trial and blood tests before the medical team start administering drugs. His head is in a large helmet sized VR headset, the weight supported by an elaborate linkage to the exoskeleton he's strapped into. Mattie explains it all again, for the benefit of the newer members of the team. "The image interpolation teams hardware takes 2D video and pictures and uses the change in camera location to extract 3D information. This gives us a good 3D model of the location Leo had the memory in." she steps around to another rack of hardware. "The data feeds the VR engine. Through the headset Leo re-sees his own memories, from his own recordings and those of his siblings, he's now standing in the scene." Mattie points to a monitor showing a grid of four different 2D views from opposite corners. "Are you okay Leo?"

"Yes. Feels a bit odd being able to watch your younger self like this."

She ducks down and enters an open cylinder array of cameras. "Any person needed to be added to the scene is scanned real time, converted to 3D and fed into the model with appropriate lighting and contrast adjustments."

Leo waves at the virtual Mattie. "It's like having my own Quantum Leap Admiral Al Calavicci. But better looking and minus the cigar."

Mattie smiles at the nods the rest of the team are doing, ducks out from the scanner and steps back towards Leo. "The tech is all good thanks to you all. If that wasn't a ground breaking Hulk Buster of an innovation then the next bit is going to have you saying Jesus. What a mind-job!"

She looks around the room at the blank emotionless faces. "Good God! Do none of you get to watch movies?"

After several seconds Leo calls out "Obviously not. Team film events needed Mattie."

"The mind-job will be the most interesting to my fellow psych students and medical team. We will be using drugs to induce a lucid dream state where Leo is part asleep, triggering the nightmares, part listening to us and seeing the VR. We all normally see our dreams in our minds eye with our real eyes doing REM. The closest parallel I can give you is sleep walking. We will be using MDMA to heighten the experience. As the lady in Hawaii put it, light his mind up like a Christmas tree."

One of the team raises a hand "You say walking, that's what the exoskeleton's for?"

"Precisely that. In some of Leo's dreams he runs, climbs stairs, is lying down. We want his mind to experience it, body to feel it's real. When we start using the drugs next week I need everyone here. If anyone is absent we cancel and reschedule. So please ensure you all communicate any problems early. Okay?"

She gets nods from everyone.

"Thanks. We're going to do a full VR test without the dream state and take blood samples at intervals to see how hormone levels change."

Another student raises a hand. "If a lot of Leo's memories are digital and not erased, how will any of this help?"

"Glad you asked. In a paper leaked by Silas Capek, Thomas Slobeck details how code in Leo and his siblings does data corruption repairs. It is our belief that by Leo re-experiencing the dream but with our insertion of a guide, Leo will have two near similar memories. The garbage collection routine in the repair code will delete one of the duplicates. Our hope is that if it doesn't delete the original bad memory first time it will do so after a few iterations."

"And by repeatedly doing that you can eventually remove the bad memories all together?"

Leo shifts around slightly. "I hope so!"

Mattie looks around them all. "Any more questions? Don't be shy, questions are good."

"Don't we have a catch 22? To be able to project a 3D view Leo has to dream it first, but once projected don't we lock his thoughts in that space? A dream might jump to another location if not locked down like that."

"Good reasoning. It's our hope that Leo's mind will still make such jumps, our hardware will be only milliseconds behind."

Leo's laugh is a bit muffled by the VR headset, "My own quantum leap!"

It gets laughs from all in the room.

Mattie smiles. "Ok, hands up who's watched at least ten episodes?"

Everyone puts their hand up.

"Twenty?"

The hands stay up.

"Fifty?"

Still the hands are up.

"Brilliant! There's something we've all watched. Okay, everyone ready?"

The first full extended systems test goes well, Leo's heart rate and testosterone levels jump slightly when VR Mattie appears in Leo's view. They do a few control tests with other students, male and female. The jump only occurs when it's her. "Nice to see you appreciate seeing me dear."

Mattie looks around the room, most of the team are in white lab coats and holding something. "Let's change this picture. It looks far too clinical, it might influence Leo in some way. From now on if Leo's scheduled for a visit I want you all dressed as if you're going to a party."

Appleton laughs, "What sort of party Mattie, I hear Franklin goes to some rather wild ones."

Franklin sticks her pierced tongue out at Appleton but then surprises him by asking "Want to be my Plus One Friday night?" Appleton goes a deep red, "Um I'll think about it."

Mattie roles her eyes, "A classy party, smart casual, no bare midriffs okay?"

The following week the first of the drug trials goes mostly to plan.

On the first day Franklin brings in a large tray of donuts.

Mattie takes a bite, "Lemon?"

The professor eventually admits that he'd shared the story of how Mattie came to get psychology in the mix.

The medical team initially have problems keeping Leo on the edge of lucid sleep. Their team lead likens it to walking a tightrope blindfolded; fall off to the left and you're in deep sleep, to the right and you're wide awake. The first attempt has him asking "Is something supposed to be happening?", the second has him snoring. Breaking for a drink in the common room Danny has a Eureka moment waiting for the kettle. He designs a simple control system that uses a skull cap for input, the output controls a servo that mechanically alters the flow between two different drip bags. With more realtime control of the agents they keep Leo oscillating gently between the two. After being able to do this six times in a row they start the MDMA treatments. To their surprise the detail in the 3D projection jumps up a level, Leo recalling detail in his dreams he hadn't before. After the test Leo is asked to recall the memory. No sign of Mattie. The next day they repeat the test. Again no sign. Mattie asks everyone to stay positive, give it a chance. On the fourth attempt when Leo is asked to recall the dream he smiles and says "Hello Mattie, love the dress!" he goes on to describe the dress in detail, how it flows with her movement. The professor walks over and whispers in her ear. "I won't tempt fate by saying this aloud to everyone, but well done, I think you've cracked it."

Williams has been watching some of the films Leo and Mattie refer to and nicknames the bags 'Red pill' and 'Blue pill', the process of getting Leo into the VR dream 'Rabbit holing' which goes down great with Mattie and her Bunny.

~~~

The following week Mattie and Leo are at her parents for dinner again, sat in the living room with plates on trays, watching the tail end of a documentary before the news. At the end of the ad break Krishnan Guru-Murthy can be seen at his desk with a set of papers.

"The Hawkins Family are in the headlines again. Shocking news will rock many Persona Synthetic owners world. That and more at 10."

Leo looks up from his dinner, points to the TV with his knife. "Do you think they've found the missing synth and made some connection to us and Persona?"

"Can't think of any other reason. We've not published yet and I'm pretty sure none of the team would be stupid enough to leak our work."

The documentary on great white shark numbers rising again continues. Mattie shakes her head. "Did you see those selfie photos Paul took with a great white behind him? He was outside the cage! Rather him than me!"

When the news starts they all sit poised for the announcement. After fifteen minutes and it getting onto small hardly newsworthy stories Joe turns to Laura. "Can't be much, they'll be on the weather in a second."

As he guessed Krishnan hands over to the weather reporter.

"See, probably pulled it last minute over some technicality. Who wants a drink?"

Mattie and Leo turn their hands up. "Please."

As Joe is in the kitchen Krishnan comes back on. "And now to our main story. We hand over to our reporter Kaushal Mishra in India."

The screen switches to a view of static.

"Sorry we appear to be having technical trouble still. We'll hopefully talk to Kaushal in a moment." he puts a finger to his ear, listening to the producers giving him an update, "Instead we switch to our UK technology reporter who's got some stills."

The view changes to a reporter superimposed on a digital background.

"Many busy people around the world have bought a Persona Synthetic. Many millions have been sold with production ramping up further still to cope with increasing demand. All assume that each synthetic has a unique look. What if everyone on the planet had been copied, sold as a synthetic into a different country?"

A CGI animation plays.

"That's a worst case scenario that hasn't yet happened, but could. C4 found evidence of a synthetic looking exactly like a human. And deliberately so, not by accident."

Leo doesn't bother looking up, cuts another bit of kiev, "Old news. Karen is a replica of my mother."

The reporter and background are replaced with a pair of eyes close up.

"What the actual FUCK!"

Laura's shocked, "Matilda!"

"I know my own eyes!"

Joe's not sure, looks across at his daughter, "They're close but not the same, and look at the skin colour, you're nowhere near that dark."

The image starts to slowly zoom out. The reporter continues. "They say the eyes are the window to the soul. What happens when that window is duplicated?"

"No, it's exactly me! Frigging hell!"

"Mattie!"

Joe puts his hand on Laura's lap, "I think she's allowed that one! It is a bit like you with a dark tan Matts."

Max leaves the room.

"No, that's EXACTLY what I see in the mirror, only with a dark skin!!"

The zoom slows while the reporter waffles on about eyes and how each is unique, like a finger print or a snow flake. An extremely close shot of an iris is superimposed.

Max comes back into the room having gone to get his new Macbook Pro. "I just spoke to Joe in America on the phone. He's given me an idea. He told me what PNAT is by the way. Photographer Not A Terrorist. Can you rewind it a few seconds?"

Mattie rewinds and hits pause.

Max sits and looks through his image library, finds the best photo of Mattie close up. He gets seated on the floor next to the TV, holding the screen up next to it.

Joe nods, "Different."

Max smiles. "But this image is what we and the camera see. This one is what Mattie sees in the mirror". He taps a key to mirror the image.

"Bloody hell!"

"Laur!"

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU! THAT'S ME!"

Laura turns to Mattie, "Ok. Hit play."

The image zooms out more. It's an exact copy. Only mirrored.

Laura leans forward, "I know it's only showing shoulders but if I'm not mistaken that's a sari. Who knows you well enough to make a copy for the Indian market?"

Mattie looks at Niska, "Ninja, can you do International telephone lookups?"

"I think so. Who for?"

"Harun. In Mumbai. Crap. How did he spell his surname?"

"It doesn't matter. I've already found all of the Harun in Mumbai in their directory. I've hacked into the telephone network accounting server. One moment." there's a pause like the annoying ones before a game show host reveals an answer or winner, "There is one Harun that the network has been trying to bombard with calls since this news item started."

"It's got to be him."

"The numbers are assigned in a quite organised way. Mumbai Tata Indicom. +91 22 6 555 8182."

Mattie gets out her phone. "Again please Nis, but slower."

Mattie types the number in and sends a message. "Hi. It's Mattie. Remember me?"

She hits send and sits back, thumps the cushion.

The image zoom has sped up, the photograph now shown in full, Mattie replica head to toe.

Laura sits back, bends her knees and puts her feet up. "You've got to admit she is beautiful though."

"Mum!"

"Well she is. She's based on you after all. But maybe not as big chested."

Mattie pushes her shoulders back and looks down, looks up at the image on the TV and looks down again. "You think?"

Mattie looks at her bracelets. She'd worn them so long she'd forgotten where each came from. Except now she recalled the time Harun had given her a leather one. "Our teacher said years ago he'd find his place. It never occurred to me it would be with synth design. He was never any good at technical stuff so assume he's using his art skills for the looks. He was always good at drawing but never accepted it as a worthy skill. I suppose I should be flattered?"

Leo looks down at the last of his food. "I take it he was a boyfriend? He must have been to get such an amazing likeness."

"No, we were just friends."

"Did you kiss him?"

Mattie pauses, thinks it best not to lie.

"Once I think. Maybe twice. But it wasn't like that. We were friends more than boyfriend and girlfriend. He wanted it. I wasn't sure, decided I didn't. He just wasn't confident enough in himself."

~~~

The next morning Mattie gets a text from Pete saying that they're having to return to Manchester, will call around to say goodbye.

While Pete has a coffee with Joe and Leo, Karen tells Mattie and Laura about the problem. They've got a hacker setting up fake Wikipedia sites. The hacker has already managed to trick a few local ISP into serving the trojan pages. They have a virus that crashes synths, permanently. Nis overhears and races off to warn her brothers.


	25. Chapter 25

Pete and Karen's departure was a punctuation mark in a long chapter on their lives. Two years have passed. With regular treatments every few months Leo is now nightmare free and back to full fitness. Just as well as their wedding day draws close.

"Matilda Elster. Mattie Elster. M.E. Me!" Sophie giggles, puts down her My Little Pony diary and heads downstairs. "Is Mattie in Mum?"

"I think so potato, she normally leaves later. Fred's in, I could hear him kicking a ball about with Max, go say hello."

"Thanks Mum". She skips off singing a song quietly to herself. On opening the gate she finds Mattie hanging some washing out.

"Hello Teeny, wasn't expecting to see you this morning, everything okay?"

"I'm not little anymore. You're going to be me!"

Mattie stands still, a damp shirt in hands, looking confused. "I'm going to be you?"

"No silly! ME!"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"No, you said you, I said ME"

The penny starts to drop. "Ah, I'm going to be me."

"Yes! M. E."

Mattie laughs. "You know that word of Bart's you like so much?"

Now it's Sophie's turn to look confused.

Mattie grins. "Mattie Elster-Hawkins".

It takes Sophie a second or two to work it out. "Meh?"

Mattie does her shrug. Sophie bursts into fits of giggles, then looks suddenly worried, runs off.

"You okay Teeny?"

A red faced Sophie enters the kitchen. "Mum, you know that thing I've not done in years, well Mattie made me laugh too much and I've done it."

A mothers intuitive thinking and Sophie standing in an odd way let Laura know what the 'thing' was. "Okay potato, there's a dry pair just by the laundry cupboard. Let's get you changed."

Laura adjusts Sophie's skirt, "There you go, all good now. What was it that made you laugh so much?"

"You know how Mattie does her shrug?"

"The 'I can't be bothered' one?"

"Yes, that Bart Simpson would say Meh to. Well Meh is going to be her initials."

Laura tries to suppress a laugh and snorts. "Oh dear. Toby will be pulling her leg over that one for years!"

Laura made a note to speak to Joe and Toby later, first thing in the morning Sophie needed to be able to use one of the loos. She had noticed things on the sink, shaving in the downstairs cloakroom was to be banned.

~~~

Joe picks up the post, recognises the franking on the envelope. "Hay Laur, the cheque for the savings plan I cashed in has arrived. We can pay the balance to Buxted Park for the reception."

Laura looks up from her magazine, checks her watch. "Great, their office should be open any minute."

Joe laughs, "Cheque Laur, give it a chance to clear!"

Laura raises her eyebrows, calls out, "Toby, can you come and install that cheque app for your father please?"

"Cheque app?"

Toby enters the kitchen, "It takes a photo and scans the data from it. No need to give it to the bank and it clears straight away."

"Since when?"

"A few months now I think."

"Amazing!". Joe pours a coffee and sits beside Laura. "Leo suggesting the date to be her 21st birthday was a good one. I can't see any of the guests passing that day up. It's going to be like a rerun of the award ceremony!"

"It's going to be way better. I hope" adds Toby, handing back the phone before returning to the living room.

Joe nods, "Yeah. Before I forget, Jan says she's free that weekend, would love to help. And I need to call the catering firm back, Buxted are saying with the number of guests we're expecting they'll need help, need to set up a temporary second kitchen."

He looks up and into the living room, "Toby's working with Cedric again. The family playlist is giving them quite a challenge. Tobs says they're doing a medley to try and fit a lot of tracks into a fifteen minute mix."

"Soph's going to love that! I bet she'll have a dance routine worked out for the night. She'll probably be awake long after we've flaked out. How about the photographer, has Paul replied yet?"

"His wife has taken a message, says he's on a nature photography trip, should be back at base to see emails in a couple of days."

Laura smiles, "If it's okay with you I'm going to head into town with Mattie, look at dresses again."

"Taking Soph with you?"

"Yes, Mia too."

"Can you drop Fred to Cedric's on the way then?"

Mattie enters her parents kitchen through the back door. "Hi Mum, Dad. I've been talking to Leo about our Honeymoon. We really don't think flying is a good idea."

Laura smiles at her daughter, thinking how she'll soon be Mrs Elster-Hawkins. "Hi Matts, why not?"

"We have no idea how his head will cope with high altitudes and low cabin pressure."

Joe does an empathic rub of his forehead without being aware of it. "Good job you thought of that now. Something going wrong so high up could be terminal."

"Exactly. So we spoke to the other contact Paul's wife gave us. Denise was super helpful, the big ships have a medical centre onboard, we're going on a cruise to the Caribbean islands and America!"

Laura picks up the car keys. "Good, that's one more thing ticked off the list. Let's get going."

~~~

Laura, Mattie, Mia and Sophie are sat around a low coffee table with the manageress of the shop. "My daughter recognised you from the paper Miss Hawkins. Well done on the award!"

Mattie smiles briefly, "Thanks."

"My name is Louise and I'll be your contact throughout. Any questions or problems call me, whatever the time." Louise holds out a business card.

Laura takes it, "Thanks Louise, I'll look after that."

Louise gets a tablet from her bag and taps a few times. "Have you used the Tinder App miss?"

Mattie's a bit taken aback. "I didn't find my fiance through an app or dating web site if that's what you're getting at!"

"No, no! So sorry, I wasn't, it's the whole 'swipe right to like, left to pass' idea. Our media people have put the whole of our dress collection into an app. You get swiping like Tinder and it starts to pick up on things you do or don't like and tailors the images that come up next. It helps bring subconscious likes and dislikes to your attention. At the end it gives us a report on what you like and likely five most favourite dresses."

Laura's impressed, "That's a bit different, the other shops we visited wanted us to answer questions like show cleavage, short or long skirt, shoulders covered with yes or no answers."

Louise beams, "We used to do that, we found it too limiting, most brides are not sure what they want, making answering questions like that difficult. And one feature you don't like on one dress you may like on another. It also wastes a lot of everyone's time as dozens of dresses are got out for them to try on. Much as I hope you'll enjoy your experience here I'm sure you'd be getting a bit fed up after being here for six hours!"

Mattie's eyes pop, "Is that how long some of your customers used to be here?"

"Some, and remarkable as it may sound that would be the first of several such visits for many. Understandably very stressful for some of our more nervous brides to be. Having a few leave in tears still without a decision got us thinking there must be a better way. So far it's not failed us once since launching the service."

She hands the tablet to Mattie, adding "The only problem we have with it is family wanting to share a tablet, adding their preferences in inconsistent ways, throwing off the algorithms."

Sophie crosses her arms, isn't looking very happy at Louise's comment.

Louise continues, "So we found a solution. You all get a tablet each. You can then compare lists at the end." she reaches into the bag and pulls out three more tablets. "But do remember you're picking a dress for Matilda, not yourself."

Sophie relaxes, a bit happier that she can join in.

Laura smiles, gets the words out before her daughter, "It's Mattie."

The lady looks down at her paperwork, "I'm so sorry, let me correct that. Can we get anyone a drink before you start?"

Sophie looks up from the tablet, "What do you have?"

"Well you're a bit too young for some of them but we have red and white wine, Champagne, coffee, tea, herbal teas, hot chocolate, orange and mango fruit juices, still and sparkling water."

Mia looks from one Hawkins to another, "I'll drive us home, feel free to indulge."

Sophie doesn't understand. "What's indulge?"

Mattie grins, "Mia's saying we can get a bit sloshed."

"Like when Toby has too much of Dads whisky?"

"That's it."

"Oh. No thanks, hot chocolate for me please."

Laura and Mattie look at each other, Laura's the first to speak, "Well Mia's offered to drive."

"Champagne?"

"Lets. Two champagne please?"

Louise looks for a final choice, "And for you Mia?"

"I don't drink. I'm a synthetic."

Laura looks a little shocked, it wasn't something Mia usually told anyone.

Louise is also looking very surprised, "Oh, so sorry my dear, you're movements are so fluid it hadn't even occurred to me that you might be". A moment later she adds, "I know the face now, you were one of the sisters in the elegant gowns at the award party! I think we've still got that copy of Hello in the shop somewhere."

Mattie mouths "Hello?" at her mother.

Louise continues, "You're rather special. It's an honour to meet you!"

"Thank you. It's nice to meet someone who's not got a negative reaction"

"If you'd like a charging cable at any time please ask. My sister has a Persona Synthetic, her model doesn't behave anything like you. Not anywhere near as graceful and well spoken. Why is that?"

"I'm conscious thanks to work Mattie's fiance's father had done. My movement has been made possible by inventions made by my brother, Mattie's brother Toby and his friend."

"Quite a family you have then."

"Quite. I'm very happy to be part of it."

A young assistant walks into the room, asks Louise if she can help, is given the drink order. Louise smiles at her, "Thank you Tina, if you have any chocolate biscuits left in the tin could you bring some please?"

When she's left the room Louise says, "My son's daughter. First part time job. You may recognise her in a few photos soon, she's modelled some of the smaller dresses for us."

Mattie looks down at the tablet, "So you don't get the images from the suppliers?"

"Oh no dear, we shoot them all here in the studio upstairs. It enables us to keep a consistency with the image quality. We just call Paul our photographer in when we have a batch of dresses ready. He loves it. We're overdue a shoot, he was at a convention the last time we asked for his services. Having a lot of fun with a young couple he'd said. Something to do with spiders."

Mattie puts her head right down to hide her face. Small world. Paul Strickland. It had to be. She had a copy of the image on her phone, but it was nice to keep some things private.

"Is that Paul Strickland?" asks Sophie.

Mattie coughs.

Louise turns to Sophie, "Do you know him?"

"I've heard the name. Yay, hot chocolate AND biscuits!"

Mattie, keeping her head down turns it sideways enough to just see Sophie, smile and wink.

Sophie takes her drink, "Paul took all the photographs? Mia's brother Max is a photographer too."

"Maybe Max would like to help out when Paul isn't free? Paul has said he'd be happy for help, his workload is getting higher."

Louise takes the Champagne from Tina and passes it to Laura and Mattie, "Shall we get going ladies?"

The four of them start swiping. After a short while Sophie giggles, "She looks like she's got a lot of table cloths sewn onto her dress."

Louise laughs, "You're not the first customer to have made that comment."

Mattie looks up at her sister, "I've seen that one too Teeny, defo swipe left."

A little while later Sophie gasps, "That's beautiful! Right!" getting smiles from the others.

Mattie frowns, "I'd swiped one left early on, it's back to be swiped again. Either that or it's an almost identical dress on the same model."

Louise leans forward to see the image, "It does that sometimes, I'm told it's because the algorithms have picked up on themes you like and want to be sure you've not dismissed a dress in error"

"Ok, that makes sense, thanks."

After fifteen minutes of swiping Louise asks them "Are you all okay for drinks?"

Mattie sips the tiny bit left in her glass and holds it out, "that's rather nice, very smooth. What is it?"

Louise admits she's not sure, they have a few different ones in.

"Only I think I'd like some for my reception. What do you think Mum?"

Laura nods, "Definitely!"

"I'll ask Tina to jot it down for you."

Another twenty minutes of swiping and Sophie's tablet is the first to pop up a dialogue box. She reads it out loud, "Please enter your first name, last name, date of birth and wedding date. I'm not getting married yet!"

Louise points out to Sophie that it's Mattie's wedding date that's wanted, not hers.

"Oops. Silly me. When are you getting Married Mattie?"

"Don't worry Teeny, I'll enter it for you."

"Ok. It's soon though isn't?"

"Yup. It will be here before you know it!"

A few more minutes and the others are at the same point, Laura is the last to finish.

"Thank you ladies. The reports should be ready in a few minutes. While we wait can I ask if you've considered bridesmaids dresses?"

Mattie's eyes widen, "Fri.. Fudge! I'd meant to ask you all. And Cindy and Nis aren't here. Urgh!"

Mia puts a hand on Mattie's, "Don't stress Mattie, Cindy and Niska will be happy with whatever you pick I'm sure."

Louise looks to Laura, "We have a range of dresses loaded into a similar app on the tablet if you'd like to take a look. I'd understand if you don't want to today. We also have a lot of clients who think they need to go elsewhere because they need a wide range of sizes and want to keep costs down."

Laura looks at her youngest, sees the look in her eyes, "Thank you Louise, we'd like a look if we could please."

Louise takes all the tablets back and gets them into manager mode, switches to the other app. As she hands them back she says "Note the many colour buttons along the side? They pick the colour to show the dress in. Thanks to Mr Strickland's Photoshop skills you can see it in all the colours that we can make it in."

Mattie's got her eyes and mouth shut tight, doing tiny little movements suppressing a laugh.

"Was it something I said?"

Laura takes another mouthful of Champagne, "I think my daughter has an admission to make."

Mattie bursts out laughing, "Mum!"

"Well stop giggling like that then!"

"Sorry Louise, I wasn't showing it off, keeping it a bit private but yes, we know Paul, Leo and I were his spiders."

"You were? I thought he was talking about real spiders, which is why I'd not asked to see the images, hate the things!"

Laura shudders and gives a "Me too!"

Mattie gets out her phone and shows Louise the composition.

"Oh my, I had no idea Paul could do this sort of thing! Very creative. Have you met his wife? She's creative in other ways, puts excellent holiday packages together."

Tina knocks on the doorframe. "Hi, I've got the results for you."

Louise puts all four on the table. There is one dress in the top two from all four reports. It's number one in Mattie's. And Mia's. Louise beams, "I think we have a clear winner! Want to try one on for size?"

Mattie feels a kaleidoscope of butterflies trying to prove chaos theory in her stomach. "Please."

"Tina, if you could take Mattie to the fitting suite please?"

Laura looks a little confused.

"Don't worry Laura, Tina will give us a shout when Mattie's ready."

Louise gets up and walks over to a low cupboard, gets out a material sample book.

"This is the colour swatch book for our bridesmaid dresses, you can get a feel for the weights of the materials. You have even more options than Mattie. There are less patterns but way more colours, Mattie only had white really. And you can decide to all have the same dress, each in different colours. Or you can all have the same colour and dress. Or same colour and different dresses. Is there a colour theme for the evening?"

Laura shakes her head, "No, no theme just yet."

They all confer, have a chat about the styles they like, come to a decision to go for the same colour and material, different dresses. Louise advises them to have each person in mind, think how they dress each day.

Sophie looks up from hers, "But Nis wears jeans or other trousers most of the time. Apart from the party."

"In which case think of Nis like a doll your dressing for the first time."

Sophie smiles widely, "I can do that!"

Laura, Mia and Sophie swipe away, work through the options.

Again Tina brings in their printouts with top five dresses. Louise thanks her and turns to Laura. "If you could all go to the fitting suite we'll have it take your measurements."

"It? You use a synth?"

"Oh no my dear, we don't employ any synth labour. At least not yet." she turns to the others, "If you'd like to earn some pocket money Mia and Sophie we're looking for models in your sizes?" looking back at Laura she adds "We've had a laser scanning machine installed. It looks like one of those high end tanning booths but instead it creates an accurate 3D model of you. Our tailors can then make the dresses fit perfectly."

"So you don't do off the peg hire?"

"We have samples to give clients rough ideas, but every purchase is of a bespoke dress. I'm sorry if I'd given you the wrong idea."

"Not a problem at all, thank you."

Sophie has her head to one side, "Does that mean we get to keep the dress?"

"Yes potato, that's what purchase means."

"Cool!"

Laura looks at her phone, she's got a spreadsheet with costs for all of the many things needed for the wedding. "Can you let us know what the prices will be like?"

Louise has spotted an opportunity. "Who's your wedding photographer going to be?"

"Paul hopefully if he's free, we've not been able to confirm yet, he's abroad on a shoot."

"I've heard. Great White Sharks with Catherine. You should check out her site catherinecapon.com. Give me a moment."

Louise leaves the room for a while.

The three chat about all the other things that need to be arranged still. Sophie asks if handing over her pocket money will help with the cost of the dresses. Laura thanks her, says not to worry. She'd cut back on other things if needed. Her little pink piggybank would be safe. Louise enters the room, magazine in hand.

"We found it. As you can see it's been looked at a lot by past customers. We stopped keeping it on the coffee table when we realised it was going to fall apart if we didn't keep it safe. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, was commenting on those dresses." she hands it to Laura.

Laura's looking confused, "Photos by Paul Strickland? I didn't know he was there, we'd certainly not arranged anything!"

"Paul said he'd been contracted by the council, did they not say?"

"No! Lovely pictures though, look Soph, here's one of you and Niska."

Sophie jumps up and stands beside her. "We hadn't met Paul yet Mum. So even if we had seen him we wouldn't have thought much about it."

Mia walks over and kneels down on the other side. "That's a lovely shot of you both."

Laura turns the page, Sophie gushes, "Daddy, Mattie and Leo! Don't they look lovely!"

Laura gently runs a hand lovingly over the image, "I'm going to have to ask Paul for a copy, that's the best photograph of Joe I've seen in years."

Louise shifts in her chair. "I was wondering if we could do a deal. Paul having his name against the images has got him a lot of work. I'd never ask anyone to work for free, telling them the exposure would be good for them. You can't pay the mortgage with exposure. But in this case the exposure has opened many doors for Paul. It was obviously the right work at just the right time. And for the right client. I've been talking to my husband about our marketing budget. We want to boost AdWords, cut down on news paper advertising and try and get a mention in magazines like this. Articles not adverts."

Sophie looks up from the pictures at Louise. "Mattie found you through Google."

"She did, great, I was going to ask how you found out about us, what search words did she use?"

"Bridal Gowns I think. In an image search"

"Image search?"

"Yes, she looked at lots of photos, some she really liked so she clicked the Visit Site button."

"If I get my laptop can you show me?"

Sophie nods. Louise hurries away, clearly excited.

Sophie does a demonstration.

"Well I be! I'd never thought of that! I'll have to point that our to my husband, John maintains our web site." she closes the laptop and rests it against her chair. "As I'd mentioned, I'd like to use some of our marketing budget to subsidise your dress and photography costs. If that would be acceptable?"

"I think Mattie would love that!"

Tina knocks again, "Mattie's ready for you."

Louise looks at them all, "Great timing, you can go see the dress, be scanned for yours."

Just before they enter the fitting room suite Louise holds the door handle and turns to face them. "Please note that Tina and the girls will have deliberately put Mattie in a dress at least one size too big and then pinned her like a shop mannequin to get the look of a bespoke dress. Just in case she turns and you see the folds and pins. They'll also have leant her some shoes. And they've probably done a quick hair makeover.

She opens the door to let them through.

Mattie sees her little sister enter the room, her mother and Mia behind her.

Sophie's jaw drops to the floor, her eyes on stalks. Mattie smiles at the response.

"My bad ass big sister is .. Is stunning!"

"Thanks Teeny, you think so? I've not heard you use stunning before?"

"New today. Louise and Mummy used it when we were looking at Paul's pictures in Hello magazine."

"Paul? Hello?"

Louise puts a finger up, "Forgot you've not seen it, give me a sec!"

Laura is lost for words, a tear of joy and pride running down her face.

Mia gives one of her soft smiles and says equally softly "You look beautiful Mattie."

Sophie gets out her hand me down phone to take a picture. Mattie asks no, it's to be kept top secret.

"Oh, please, just one."

"But if it accidentally gets seen by Leo it will be bad luck Soph."

"Okay, I'll wait."

"Thanks Teeny."

"I'm not little any more Mattie."

"You'll always be my special Teeny no matter how tall you get."

Sophie's eyes say all the thanks Mattie needs.

Laura manages to get some words out, choked with emotion, "Mattie you look amazing."

~~~

"You know what Cedric, everyone has Thinking Out Loud for their first dance these days. I've got another track that Mattie and Leo love, especially as the word has special meaning for them both."

Cedric has a think, there are a number of tracks on Ed Sheeran's album with a single word song title. "Bloodstream?"

"No, although we did play that at the award party. Photograph."

"Oh the Mrs and I like that one. You did play the live version of Bloodstream, the album version is a lot slower."

"True. Another one for the mix". Toby looks at the long list of tracks. "Now I know what DJ Jaguar Skills has to go through."

~~~

The week after passes in a blur of work, phone calls, sending incorrect table decorations back, the family all getting generally stressed out about anything and everything. In short, madness!

~~~

Joe drops his head onto the pillow, looks up at the ceiling. "I can't believe where finally here. 14 hours and counting. Anything left on the list?"

There's no reply, Laura's already sparked out.


	26. Chapter 26

"You ready Matts?" Calls Joe, the anxious father of the bride. "The car's going to be here in fifteen minutes."

Mattie looks up at Jan in the mirror. "Are all fathers as nervous as Dad?"

Jan laughs and finishes pinning Mattie's hair. "I don't think I've met one that wasn't. It's a big moment, handing over responsibility of a loved one to another man."

"We've lived together as a couple for years right next door, hopefully that will make it a bit easier for him."

Mattie calls out. "Just doing makeup Dad!"

"Sophie's sent a txt, they're all seated at the church waiting. Leo's pacing."

"Already??"

Jan gives Mattie's hair a spray. "The church is only fifteen minutes away, you've got plenty time."

Mattie picks up her big fat e-cigarette and takes a long drag.

"Are they any good?"

"This? It's okay. I have the weakest liquid they do. It's a habit now, hard to drop."

"Happy Birthday by the way. Did you have a good morning?"

"Yeah. Leo made me breakfast in bed, sent it across from Mum and Dads with Sophie. Everyone but Leo was downstairs with poppers and presents when I went down to make a coffee. I had such a surprise I had hiccups for a good ten minutes."

"Leo wants to do this old school?"

"Yeah, not see me today until the service, hasn't seen the dress, wants old vows."

"Why's that?"

"Not sure really, but he felt quite strongly about it so I wasn't going to spoil things, it's his day just as much as mine."

Joe calls out, "Paul's here to take a few photos before heading to the church."

As Mattie slowly and carefully steps downstairs the two men smile at the vision in front of them. "That's quite a dress Mattie." says Paul.

"It's for Leo. I hope my Bunny gets it."

"The Jessica Rabbit bottom of the dress? I'm sure he will. Can't say I've ever seen one like it before."

Joe looks happy but curious. "You look stunning love. Is the bottom of the dress like two dresses in one?"

"Yes". Mattie lifts what looks like a collar around her waist. "This bit unzips, the outer skirt and train comes off, it will make dancing at the reception far easier."

"Oh, so it's a bit like a partial cancan skirt?"

"Guess so."

"Mum says you all had it in your top two when looking for the dress. How could they have known?"

"Dad?"

"Yes."

"Lady talk."

"Oh. Okay."

"Paul, lets get these photos done."

~~~

Leo looks nervously at his best man. "Got the rings?"

Max smiles. "Yes Leo, they are still safe in my pocket."

"Okay, just checking."

"That's the fourth time you've checked Leo. Are you okay?"

"I'm a bag of nerves and wobbly circuits. What if she doesn't turn up?"

"Leo! Relax. Mattie loves you, of course she will turn up. You have seen all the films, they like to be fashionably late. I am sure she will be no different."

The church organ suddenly switches to a more familiar tune, Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

"I take that back. I think she is here."

Leo turns with Max to watch the door to the church.

"I will catch you if you faint." jokes Max.

Moments later and the large door is swung open, Leo takes a sharp intake of breath and whispers "She's beautiful! I might have to take you up on that offer Max, I think my blood has just rushed to my legs."

A very proud Joe leads Mattie up the isle. Mattie's walking very slowly, her train being held by Sophie, the other bridesmaids behind.

When they get half way Leo turns to Max, "Did I just..". Before he can finish the question Max replies "Yes."

Mattie reaches the alter and whispers "Hi!" to Leo, gives him a smile. Max, Joe and the bridesmaids take their seats.

The minister starts his welcomes, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you."

Half the congregation say "And also with you."

Leo's been at the rehearsals with Mattie, lets the ministers words float over him. He looks lovingly into her eyes and thinks back to some of the times they've spent together.

A prayer is said, and a hymn sung, he's aware of his mouth moving but feels somehow disconnected from it. His universe currently contains only two people. Himself and the beautiful young lady smiling softly back at him.

Mattie sees a familiar look in his eyes and gives his hand a tight pinch to stop his daydreaming.

The minister is looking around the congregation, "First, I am required to ask anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry, to declare it now."

The door at the back of the church slowly opens, there's a lot of whispering as four police men in kevlar vests enter. Leo turns to see, whispers "Please no."

Max gets up and stands by Leo, worried that he might need some help.

Mattie turns to see what Leo's looking at and says "Oh crap", a little too loud. There are a few sniggers from the congregation.

Moments later Karen can be heard saying "Pete get a bloody move on!" rather loudly, getting a few guffaws. Moments later the two of them come through the door.

Pete holds his hands up and says something quietly. Leo turns to Max who says "Sorry, tyre blew."

Mattie turns back the minister, "Trust someone in our family to play the comedy card."

The minister looks to Pete, Karen and the four policemen, see's that they've settled at the back and aren't going to make any further problems.

He leans forward and whispers "Great timing!" he steps back and raises his voice. "Leo, will you take Matilda to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

"Matilda, will you take Leo to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

"Will you, the families and friends of Matilda and Leo support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?"

The congregation all say "We will."

The minister says the Collect, a Bible passage is read and a hymn sung. Leo isn't used to standing still so long and shifts about a little. Mattie gives him a subtle 'You okay?' frown, he nods.

"Matilda and Leo, I now invite you to join hands and make your vows, in the presence of God and his people."

"I, Leo , take you, Matilda, to be my wife .."

The kaleidoscope of butterflies that had flown all those months ago returned with friends. Mattie felt her temperature rocket. She thought back to the day Leo sat in the livingroom, telling her that just because she'd seen some of his memories she didn't know him. She'd said she was trying to. She'd wanted to and had got her wish.

".. In the presence of God I make this vow"

The minister does a tiny cough. Mattie recalls the words she'd listened to on her phone time and time again.

She takes Leo's right hand. "I, Matilda, take you, Leo, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God's holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow."

The minister looks to Max and again has to cough when nothing happens. He looks to Mattie and Leo and glances to Max and back a few times.

Leo turns, "Max?"

Max smiles at his brother.

"The rings Max?"

"Now?"

"Yes!"

"Sorry!"

The minister receives the rings and blesses them.

Leo slides Mattie's ring on her finger, a slight tremor in his hand. "Mattie, Matilda, I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit." by the time he's done the tremor is visible.

Mattie takes Leo's ring and gives her vows, smiling and not once breaking eye contact.

"In the presence of God, and before this congregation..."

In her mind she questions why Leo started shaking so much. She remembered the bath night and candles, his question about fight or flight. Was he getting anxious?

"... and by the giving and receiving of rings. I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife."

There's the odd cheer from older guests. The minister joins their right hands together, "Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder"

Leo either forgets or ignores how the rest of the service should go and pulls his wife into a passionate embrace. Younger members of the congregation give them wolf whistles. There's plenty laughter and cheering. Laura accepts yet another tissue from Joe.

The minister gets through his blessing in double quick time, aware that the congregation are getting restless.

Mattie, Leo and family are taken to sign the register.

Holly-Anne squeezes Toby's knee, "That was beautiful. What do you think our wedding will be like?"

Mattie and Leo emerge from the little room.

Paul sits next to Danny and changes camera batteries, "Quick breather!"

"Got some good shots?"

"I think so, will know for sure tonight."

"You're processing tonight?"

"No, just copying the images off the cards and having a quick flick through."

The final prayer is said and Mattie and Leo gets ready to walk down the isle as husband and wife.

"See you later Dan, duty calls!"

Paul's ready, crouched down at the far end of the isle with a good zoom. His view point is low enough to see past the many arms with smartphones and compact cameras.

Mattie gives Leo's hand a little squeeze, "Remember to look down at Paul with your eyes not head". Leo squeezes back, "Okay wifey". Half a dozen shots taken Paul finds he can't zoom out much more and dashes outside to get ready for the next set.

The minister joins them just inside the front doors, "Congratulations Mattie, Leo. Toby says your guests are getting organised for you. Leo, your brother Fred was brilliant on the organ, so pleased with how things have gone."

Mattie spins her bouquet, "Sorry about the interruption to the service."

"Not to worry. Max said something about a blown tire? Everyone okay?"

"As far as we know."

Max pops his head around the door. "We're ready."

Mattie is totally taken by surprise. She'd expected a couple of random lines of people. What they'd got was far more organised. Two neatly arranged sets of rows, taller people at the back, kids at the front. Paul is set up with a huge lens twenty or so feet past the far end. Max calls "Ready Toby? Dan?"

"Ready!"

Toby slaps Mattie on the back, "Ready!"

Nothing happens. Mattie grabs Leo's hand and starts walking. All of the guests are holding what look like mini Olympic torches, she's four feet in from the first set of people when there's a set of synchronised bangs. Rice, paper streamers and large glitter fragments come flying over them. Mattie grabs her skirt with her free hand and they both break into a bit of a run, laughing as they go. With almost every step more bangs are heard, the eruptions of confetti keeping up with their running.

Mattie reaches Paul and has to jump sideways not to take him and his camera out. "Haha, that was crazy! I think I've got a bra full of rice!"

Leo looks at a very happy looking Paul. "I take it that was Danny's doing?"

Paul grins, "Who else would set up synchronised confetti bombs?"

Mattie puts an arm around Leo and gives him a hug. "Trust him! How'd he do that?"

"Hi Sis."

"Hi Toby."

There's the sound of something being peeled off Mattie's back.

"Oi!"

Toby holds the large sticky plaster out. Inside is a small circuit. "Ultra low power transmitter."

Leo smiles. "Head bump?"

Toby nods.

During the drive from the church to the reception Leo recognises a street. He leans forward, "Can you take a left at the lights?"

The driver nods.

Mattie looks around. "Leo?"

"A lot of people have saved me over the years. Mia at the lake, my father, you and Max when I'd walked off, Freddie, your mother when Hobb had us all. The buskers too."

The car turns.

An excited Leo says "They're there! Can you pull up by that red brick building please?"

Leo gets out and holds a hand out for Mattie. He leads her to a surprised looking group of musicians. "Hi, do you remember me?"

The older one frowns, trying to place Leo, seeing so many members of the public he can't recall.

Leo touches his side, waves his hand away a few times to gesture bleeding. "Nice mods eh?"

The man smiles, "Two synths do robot!"

Leo nods, holds his hand out, the man accepts it and gives him a good handshake.

Leo turns to Mattie, "Our first dance is supposed to be at the reception but I owe these lads one."

Mattie smiles, "Mr Elster-Hawkins, shall we then?"

The buskers play a slow folk song neither of the couple had heard before. They draw a crowd, lots of photos and video being taken. The buskers violin case is getting a good amount of notes and golden coloured coins.

The dance over Leo thanks them all, "We must go, our reception guests are waiting."

The lead busker says "Photos please!", gets a member of the public to take a shot of them all.

~~~

At the reception Mattie quickly dashes to their room to use the bathroom. A voice talks to her through the closed door.

"Hello Mattie, how was the service?"

"Great thanks Teddy, everything okay?"

"Everything is good Mattie. Although I noticed you are not wearing the watch."

"Sorry, it didn't go with the dress and my jewellery."

"Would you like me to continue to guard the room?"

"Yes please Teddy. Can you access WiFi?"

"Yes."

Mattie quickly describes a web page her mobile service provider has that allows txt messages to be sent. "I think you can send a message to me over it. Give it a quick go."

Before she's even got the door half open her phone chimes. She stops for a moment and gets it out.

"I didn't see you carrying a phone. And I don't see any pockets."

"Jeez, not you too. Just figure it out okay?"


	27. Chapter 27

They've taken over the whole of the building. The dining room has been very carefully laid out, will be packed to the gills. The staff have brought in AC units to help cope with the heat everyone is already putting out. A massive marquee has been set up against the lounge like a conservatory, moving the dance floor outside.

The guests are all arriving, Pete introduces the Beemer Boys to Matts. "Mattie, this is DSs Johnson, Patel, Slowinski and Johnson."

Mattie grins, before she can say a word the Johnson on the right says with a smile "Johnson to my right is the fittest of us all, but no we have no links to baby oil firms and are not stripper-grams."

Mattie smiles, "I had been thinking talcum powder actually, having helped with my younger sister when she was a baby, you've corrupted a young innocent brides mind!" she winks, "Lovely to meet you at last. And thank you so much for coming to Pete and Karen's rescue. We've managed to squeeze in four more chairs, please enjoy the evening as much as possible."

She turns to Pete, "Just how bad was it?"

"We're lucky to be alive. The front near side tyre blew when we were on the motorway. We were in the middle lane passing a low loader hauling tree trunks. God only knows how it didn't role! We spun like a whip ride at the fairground, must have turned over a dozen times. Not fun! Seeing that low loader bearing down on us I thought we were goners. Next thing I know a souped up land-rover has deliberately side swiped us stopping the spin and shoving us sideways onto the offramp. She's a bloody hero!" Pete looks past Mattie at a man with a blonde on his arm. "Am I fracking hallucinating? The guy with the nice blonde on his arm?"

Mattie turns to see, "You mean Silas with my bridesmaid Sandra?"

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"Sandra's part of the family now. And we couldn't invite her and not him. He's a reformed man Pete. Helped us with a load of things. He's all licensed and legit now."

"This is all a bit too bizarre, I need a stronger drink!"

Karen joins them both.

"Hi Karen, glad you both got out of that accident in one piece, are you okay?"

Karen shakes her head, talks rather loudly, "No, I've lost hearing in my left ear, think I slammed my head when the land-rover stopped our spinning. Fred's offered to take a look tomorrow."

"Tell him if there's anything he needs DC will sort it out top priority."

"Thanks."

"I've had a question nagging me. How on earth did those army synth get from the UK to Spain so fast without anyone knowing?"

Karen shakes her head, "Someone knew, they were just a bit slow coming forward with the information. They'd managed to take over a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, flew as one unit under the radar. Got back to the UK the same way."

"Bloody hell!"

"Pete!"

"Now I really am seeing things!"

Mattie turns trying to see where he's looking. "What?"

"I thought he'd be scrapped by now?"

Mattie looks at Nis and Odi. "The love birds? Cute couple eh? They've been joined at the hip since the service. But surely you've seen him at the house?"

Pete shakes his head, "If he's been there somehow we've missed each other."

Karen places a hand on Pete's shoulder, "Sure you've not bumped your head too?"

Mattie puts a hand on Pete's arm, "We better take our seats."

Max's best man speech has everyone in stitches, his jokes all working for a change. His affection for his brother and the rest of his family is apparent to all.

He's got a load of photos of Leo, some from his memories, some from the dSLR. He gets a great laugh when he shows an image he'd saved from Facebook, "This is what it's like looking after one of us brothers!"

It's an image with some text over the top:

'If I am ever on life support, unplug me...

Then plug me back in.

See if that works...'

The wedding breakfast goes down well with the guests, nothing but empty plates return to the kitchen. The Champagne is flowing, everyone chatting and laughing. Laura keeps giving the couple loving smiles. The waiting staff bring out peoples dessert choices.

Prof Breithaupt gets up, taps his glass repeatedly with a spoon. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make!" he runs a hand through his thinning hair and puffs his cheeks. He blows out slowly, "Where to start! At the beginning might help eh? As some of you will know a younger Miss Hawkins was looking to do AI studies at university. We fought tooth and nail for her because of her unique AI insight and skills. Universities fighting over students isn't unheard of by the way, we all have ratings to worry about. Anyway, I'm extremely glad to say we won. A number of months into the first semester she had personal reasons to join the psychology lectures. Over the last three and a bit years she's led a team looking at a topic very close to her heart." he looks around the room at all the faces, "Many of you will know the current semester ends in a month and a half. Officially we have another five month semester to do next year before we wrap up. So what I'm about to say is against normal policy and convention. BUT. And it's a big but, we felt we had to do it because of something I'll tell you about in a moment." he takes another good mouthful of drink, "Sorry if this all sounds like a Ronnie Corbett shaggy story, there is a punch line and I promise you'll like it."

He takes a further drink of Champagne, his throat still dry. "Very nice Champers by the way. So, the unconventional bit, Mattie, or should I say Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins?"

It takes several seconds for the message to sink in, her guests start clapping, table thumping and cheering. Mattie is going somewhat pink. The professor puts both arms in the air, waves, trying to continue. He gives up and has some more to drink, waits for things to settle. One of the waiters spots his empty glass and refills it while he looks the other way.

"The university took the somewhat unusual decision to award you your doctorate early because of the outstanding work done to date, and a little something that they thought would look better with Dr on the front."

He smiles and turns theatrically to his audience, runs his hand through his hair. "We're not against a little vanity now again." he gets some good laughs. "I have just received confirmation absolute on some exciting news. Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins you now have a day for triple celebration!" he raises his now full glass of Champagne, frowns, a little confused about how much he'd drunk. "This is truly great stuff Mrs Hawkins, Laura, I seam to be losing the ability to count! QUADRUPLE!"

He gets a few more laughs.

"I'd like everyone to raise a glass." he pauses for everyone to grab something. "Our University's first NOBEL PEACE PRIZE winner for your work on the subconscious mind and post traumatic stress disorder treatments!"

Before he'd had the chance to finish the sentence the crowd had already gone mad.

Mattie goes bright red as her husband, family and friends give her a standing ovation.

Joe leans over, has to raise his voice in order to be heard over the cheering, "I'd like to see any synth try that! Well done love!" Laura leans forward to be seen, gives Mattie a lovely smile and mouths the words "Well done!", gives her a thumbs up.

There are now quite a few people calling "Speech!"

Leo fans her face with a wine list, trying to help her cool down. Joe joins in, his daughter looking rather flustered. Laura gets up and opens a door to let some cold air in. Mattie gets to her feet, has to wait a while for things to calm down. "Looks like I'll be in the news yet again, this is becoming a bit of a habit for our family, want to be our agent Dad? Hello magazine may be calling soon." she looks around the room, "Where's Paul?"

Paul waves an arm.

"Good, my personal photographer is here!", she gives him a smile and wink, Paul gets a few claps.

"Maybe I could get that Indian synth to be my stunt double?" It gets plenty laughter from their guests.

Toby calls out, "Happy D'BANP Day Sis!". There's the odd chuckle from a few guests fast enough at working out what the acronym stood for.

"Thanks Toby, I like that. I have my lovely husband to thank for influencing the path I've taken the past four and a bit years. Without him the award, my studies, our coming together, all of this would never have happened. It's had it's highs and lows like any other family. But the journey has been an interesting and fulfilling one. And it wouldn't have happened without the wonderful team of people that helped turn my thoughts into reality. If the team could all stand up."

The dozen members that had been able to attend stood up and got a round of applause.

"The award may be in my name but it's yours too. Thank you. See you all on the dance floor in a bit."

Mattie does her first official dance to Photograph with Leo, train on. Paul does a dance of sorts around them, getting shots of the couple and guests behind. As they'd rehearsed the bridesmaids come to the floor and surround Mattie while she undoes the long zip keeping it to her waist. Sophie carries it off to the side while Mia, Nis, Cindy and Sandra take positions behind Mattie and Leo. Sophie returns and gets in front. She strikes a pose, Toby's signal to start the mix. The dance routine gets going, Fred and Max join moments later as planned when there's a short section of Never Forget You. Joe has everyone in stitches when his Dad Dance routine comes on, the others copying his every move.

Laura is crying with laughter, turns to Holly-Anne and Emily, "Did you know about this?"

Emily smiles, shaking her head, "I knew they were doing a lot of rehearsals, I thought Joe was just an extra driver and helping Dan and Toby with things!"

The guests give them a round of applause when the fifteen minute mix is done.

The ten come together for a group hug. Mattie puts a hand on Max's shoulder, "Max, could you do me a massive favour please? Get us some pints of ice water in a minute? I feel like I'm about to melt!" she turns to Niska, "Nis, could you get my bouquet please? And don't grip the stem too tight."

Mattie is left standing on her own for a few seconds, two thirds across the dance floor. Toby puts on a loop of the intro to All The Single Ladies, it restarts after the words 'Now put your hands up'. Mia, Nis, Cindy and Sandra return to the floor. Sophie races on and does a long slide to a halt, assumes an American football receivers pose getting an applause from the guests.

Holly-Anne sees Danny and Toby join the group of people around Paul. She turns, "Come on Ems!"

Little Jenny's father leads her onto the floor, Sophie gives her a smile.

There is now quite a group of girls and women on the floor. Jenny, a daughter of one of her uni team is the youngest, only six. The oldest looks to be in her seventies. Mattie smiles, it should never be too late to find love. She looks Sophie in the eyes and does a tiny nod. Sophie returns it.

Mattie turns her back to them all and does the same nod to Paul, he winks back and raises his camera.

Mattie pulls at a bit of thread on the stem of the bouquet and the binding unravels.

She carefully grips it, the neck between her thumb and index finger, "Here we go!"

She bends forward, bouquet almost touching the floor. She brings it up in a long sweep at arms length, lets go just at the top of the arch and follows through, careful not to get her hand in the way once released. Sophie had already started her move, comes forward and puts her hands under little Jenny's arms, has lifted her as high as she can. There's a tiny pop and the bouquet splits into twelve, confused bridesmaids and guests dart in all directions, Sophie at the front looks up to see Jenny catch one. Niska catches one of them, turns to see Odi looking very happy.

"Well done potato, what you did for little Jenny was lovely. I see Holly-Anne and Emily managed to scramble for one. Didn't you want to catch one?"

"It's okay Mum, I've got something better." she pulls out a tiny little layer of material squares. "It's from Mattie's dress. When you see it later you'll see the lining has some holes."

"Did Mattie make that?"

"Yes, she says she stitched it by hand."

The top layer is lace netting from the detachable skirt, the ones below silks. They're all held together by two heart shaped outlines, one stitched in baby blue, the other pink.

Laura looks closer at her daughter's work.

Sophie beams, "Mattie says the blue one is a thread from her Gar.."

"Garter?"

"That's it. The pink is from a bridesmaids dress."

"Wow, didn't know Mattie could sew. Did Daniel's mother help her?"

"Silas showed her how."

"Really?"

Sophie nods.

She puts it back in her pocket and says "See you later!", Love 3X has started playing.

~~~

Every so often Toby has a slow track to allow people to get their breath back and let some of the less able dancers have a shuffle. Mattie has both arms up around Leo's neck. "Was I hearing things today?"

Leo smirks. "The Wedding March? I noticed too, so did Max."

"So who do you think got Fred to add a few notes from The Imperial March? Danny or Toby?"

"I don't know, but I'll find out. Must have been one of them. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't for a bet or dare."

A waiter passes nearby with a tray of drinks, Mattie waves to draw his attention, "Want one Bunnykins?"

Leo sips his Champagne, not that easy when dancing chest to chest with his wife. As they turn Paul and his own wife come into view. Leo thinks of a surprise he'd got for Mattie. "I was going to keep this for tomorrow but with everything else that's been announced why not now. You know Paul's been working flat out for a couple of years, not had a holiday in ages?"

"Hasn't he?"

"Apart from the mini break with sharks, no. We love all the photo's he's taken.."

"Our living room is practically a mini Paul Strickland gallery!"

"Exactly. I thought it would be a shame for this chapter of his work to finish tonight."

Mattie leans back to see Leo's face properly, "What are you suggesting?"

"He told me he'd booked the next two weeks out to focusing on our wedding album."

"I'm not following you Leo."

"I asked if he could do the work from anywhere. He said as long as he had a desk and mains socket, yes."

"Still not following you!"

"So Paul and his wife are going on a cruise."

"That's nice, where too?"

"Same place as us!"

"Is he?"

"I thought why be stuck in the office processing images when you can be sailing and processing images. So I bought them tickets. They'll be with us for the first ten days, then have a couple of days in Florida to their own before flying back home. In return Paul will take a few shots of us when we do the island tours."

Mattie grabs Leo by the scruff of the neck and gives him the biggest kiss of the night.

When he's allowed to break for air he gasps, "So you like the idea then?"

Mattie's about to reply when her phone chimes. She frowns and reaches into the top of her dress to get it out. Leo's eyes widen and he grins.

It doesn't go unnoticed, "Oi lover-boy! Keep those thoughts for later!"

Mattie takes a moment to focus on the message. "Teddy says someone is in our room throwing things around!"

Leo wraps his arms around her, "Don't panic, I think I know what that is"

~~~

With quite a number of glasses of Champagne inside her Mattie introduces Pete's colleagues to Leo. "Hay Leo, these are the Baby Oil Boys. Oh crap. I said that out loud didn't I? Oops! Beamer Boys!"

Leo smiles, "Please forgive my wife, she's not used to Champagne, I think she's had one bottle too many."

The men smile back, Slowinski tells Leo it's not a problem. They've had a great time, hadn't expected to be given such a lovely meal and warm hospitality. Their week of nights ending with the dash to help Pete had been a welcome change, their weeks didn't normally end on such a good note, they were grateful.

~~~

Leo holds Mattie's hand and leads her to the family, says they've had a wonderful evening, it's time they got their heads down.

Upstairs he unlocks their bedroom and stands back. Mattie looks at him and frowns. She looks to the door. "Everything okay in there Teddy?"

"Everything is fine Mattie"

She opens the door and is met by a smell of vanilla. The floor and bed are covered in rose petals, hundreds of candles set out.

"Oh Leo! It's beautiful! Thank you!"

Leo turns to Teddy, "Sorry mate, but I need to know where that off switch is.."


	28. Chapter 28

Mattie and Leo say their goodbyes to Danny and watch until DC3 vanishes into the late morning traffic.

Mattie, her arm resting on Leo's shoulder, turns to see his distant gaze, "Everything okay?"

"Hmm? Sorry, yes. I've got a bit used to having WiFi now, it will be strange being off the grid for six weeks."

Mattie chuckles, "You checked out their website in detail then dear?", gives him a peck on the cheek and raises a sarcastic eyebrow.

He turns to see her expression, laughs back, "Mr Spock would be impressed with your eyebrow control,", goes to tickle his wife, "so what did I miss?"

Mattie's too quick, bends her body sideways and away while still holding around his shoulder. "Leo, we're not even on board yet, save the fooling around until later. You missed that all of their ships have WiFi!"

"Really? We'll be able to stay in touch the whole time? Does everyone know? I mean back home."

"Toby does, I expect everyone else will soon." she takes hold if his shoulders and gently turns him around, does a head bump. "We need to tell Danny strictly no work related messages."

~~~

Leo is handed their onboard ID cards, told that their bags are being taken care of. He gives Mattie a smile, "Shall we check our room out before we grab lunch?"

"Sure, any idea where it is?"

"Yes, Nis gave me a useful tip. If you see a floor plan memorise it." he points towards a corridor, "That way."

Leo pushes and holds open the door for Mattie, lets her step inside.

She's shocked by the size of the room, "Wow! Leo!" she steps further in, does a slow turn, taking in all the space. She kicks off her shoes and does a balletic run around on her toes, disappears around a corner, "A second bedroom?"

Moments later she's back. With the UK weather a bit chilly she doesn't bother opening the balcony doors, just gives the view between the curtains a quick glance then returns her attention to the things in the room. "Leo, this is magical, this isn't just a room! This is a palace!"

"Well it is called the Royal Suite, fitting for my princess."

"It's huge!"

"Bit on the large side isn't it! Thought you'd like the extra space. I got an upgrade. Sleeps 4. So if I have any head problems you can kick me out into the second bedroom."

"So unlikely! You did check out their site then?"

"Yes, just not the bit about WiFi. So, lunch here or in one of the restaurants?"

"Here?"

"Yeah, we've got concierge service if you want it."

She wraps her arms around him and gives him a good kiss, "Lazy breakfast in bed every day then, dinner in the restaurant!"

"Not using the gym early mornings?"

"Are you kidding me? On our honeymoon, when I can be snuggled up against you not pounding the treadmill?"

Leo gives her a wink, "Of course I'm kidding, I'll get all the exercise I need before I'm even out of bed."

"HA! Wishful thinking Bunny, behave yourself and you might get lucky, no promises though."

Leo does his best impression of his wife's eyebrow raise, "I'm not complaining but it is you that initiates it most of the time."

"Are you saying I'm .."

"I'm not saying anything other than an activity I enjoy with you usually starts because you want it."

Mattie steps close, close enough to kiss, brushes her hand on his cheek, "Maybe you should take the lead a little more dear? Let's check out the ship."

With a ship so large it takes them a while to amble about Deck 5. Leo pops into one of the shops having spotted something he likes, "Give me a moment."

Mattie had been watching a silver haired couple that had made her smile, there was something about them. "Sure, no rush." she continued to watch how they moved together. What was that word her English teacher had told them? That was it, Synchronicity. The gentleman looked quite frail, had a badly stooped back. He walked slowly along the promenade, arm in arm with his partner. Despite his condition the pair were moving as one, not one leading the other. She smiled at them as they slowly approached. It didn't go unnoticed.

The woman slowly steers them both to the shop entrance.

Mattie watches the man give his partner a squeeze of the hand. It makes her smile, hopefully Leo would be with her until she was old and grey too.

The lady returns the smile, "Hello my dear, enjoying your first cruise?"

As if Matti's thought had been his queue Leo returns with a large bag, stands to the man's side, a subtle grin on his face.

She looks back to the woman, "Hi. Just boarded, thanks. You can tell?"

"I can, but it's not a bad thing dear. We've been on a few haven't we Ben?"

Ben having seen Mattie waist downward makes a massive and clearly strenuous effort to look up. Movement over he smiles warmly at Mattie, "Another lovely you've found for me to gaze upon Peggy? My eyes thank you!" after a few seconds appreciating Mattie's smile he lowers his head back into a more comfortable position.

Peggy laughs, "Do excuse my husband, he's always had an eye for the pretty ladies!"

Ben shuffles, looking at the deck floor, "I'd not have seen and married you dear if I hadn't! We've been cruising for almost sixty years. Started in our thirties and got hooked. Not a port on the planet we've not been to at least once."

"Wow! How many have you been on?"

Peggy looks distant, "We used to know, then lost count. When you're living on a ship more than dry land it's easy to forget."

"How do you afford it, that must cost a fortune?"

"We book well in advance, and we sold the family business then our home, made a nice profit, some share dividends help."

Ben shuffles, "I'd say! Bought the house for thousands off my father in my twenties when he moved to Leeds with work, sold it to property developers four years ago for just over three million."

Leo looks at the man, "No children to pass the business onto?"

"Sadly not. It wasn't for lack of trying. My fault, broken plumbing."

Peggy looks briefly cross, "Ben, how many times have I said, it was nobody's fault, it was nothing you had any control over."

Ben chuckles, "You've said that as many times as we've visited a port I would imagine."

Mattie looks puzzled, "Don't you need anything off the ship?"

"We have supplies sent to the port ahead, the ships medical officer collects them for us. He's quite a sweet lad."

One of the ships crew passes, "Hi Peggy, Ben, everything okay?"

Peggy waves, "Yes thank you Lee, and yourself?"

"Fine thanks, will we see you at dinner tonight?"

"You will."

"See you later then!"

Mattie looks amazed. "Do many staff know you by first names?"

Peggy shakes her head, "No, just a few. On cruise ships this size with thousands of passengers you have to either make yourself really stand out or cruise a lot like us to be noticed."

Ben makes the effort to see Leo, Leo's quicker and bends down a little to make the job less painful, "Nice to meet you both". Ben looks back at the floor. "You should visit the groomers young man. They do a very good hot towel shave. If you're thinking about dropping the beard I'd recommend doing it now, wouldn't you Peggy?"

Peggy does a sweet half laugh half sigh, "Oh Ben, I'll never forget!". She looks at Mattie, "In our mid forties Ben had a full beard, got very brown in the sun one trip, then found it too uncomfortable in the extreme heat. Only when he shaved it off it looked like he had a white beard, his untanned skin was so pale!"

Ben grumbles, "What a fool I looked, got more attention without my beard than I'd got fussing over how uncomfortable it had become!"

Peggy puts her free arm around his head and gives his hair a rub, "It only took a week to get your colour dear."

"The kids asking if I was an off duty clown wasn't funny. Well not at the time. Bloody hilarious looking back at it. They say you can't learn from other people's mistakes, but I'm sure you can picture me looking daft and not do the same."

Peggy looks at them both, "We better get ready for lunch. Hopefully we'll see you again soon?"

"I'm sure we will, take care."

Mattie watch the couple slowly walk away towards the lifts. "There's something about the way the two of them move together, can't quite put my finger on it."

She looks down at the bag then gives Leo a quizzical smile, "What've you got there?"

"Come up to the room and I'll show you."

~~~

Leo takes the bag into the bathroom, "Sit on the bed for a moment while I change."

Mattie leans back, arms straight and hands out, "You got clothes?"

Leo calls through the door, "Yes, wait a moment!"

"Okay, I'm waiting" she keeps her gaze on the door, curious as to what he'd got. Leo had been a man of many layers. Both metaphorically and fashion wise. Even when in a suit he liked shirt, waistcoat and jacket, as if the layers helped protect him from something unseen. She hears a noise, it sounds like Leo's belt buckle hitting the bath. "What are you doing?"

"Almost ready!"

Mattie sighs softly. Apart from when she'd seen him running off to recover her car keys he'd not been the most coordinated person she'd met. She liked that he had a clumsy side to him, just like a lot of other people.

The door opens and Leo steps out.

Mattie says "Frigging hell Leo!" in the most appreciative way possible.

He's in board shorts and unbuttoned white short sleeved shirt made from the thinnest of materials. The sight of his chest hair gets her a little excited. "Your turn."

Mattie frowns, "You got something for me?"

"They're in the bag, hope you like them." Leo jumps onto the bed and copies her pose, motions to the bathroom.

Mattie slides off and turns, gives him a peck on the lips, slides a hand over his chest and heads to the bathroom.

After a couple of minutes she calls out "How did you know my size?"

"Isn't that part of the Husband job description?"

"Yes! And you've got it spot on!"

He smiles and whispers to himself, "Some things I never want to forget."

She opens the door, enters the room and does a twirl, sending the lower part of the thin white bikini wrap outwards.

Leo looks lovingly at his wife, "Beautiful!"

"Do you think pink is my colour?"

Leo smiles, "Remember your stunt double? And what Ben said? It may be lovely today, soon it will be even more so. I wan't a nice photo of us both in these outfits on a sandy island beach somewhere. Which reminds me, have Paul and Jasmine checked in?"

Mattie finds her bag, gets out the phone. "Oops, three missed calls, two txt. One's from Mum, asking if we got here okay, that motorway incident was on the news." she quickly taps out a reply, sends and goes to the other message. "Paul says 'We're in the room thanks, nice window view, a crew member is bringing up my case with the Mac'. Good. Shall we all meet up for lunch?"

Leo nods, "Let's."

Mattie drops the phone back into her bag and crawls onto the bed, gives Leo a kiss, "My first course is here, rare rabbit. You've been saving, time to let you spend."

"Saving?"

"The fooling around, don't you remember me saying to save it for later?"

"I didn't realise you were being so literal."

"Well I was, and later is now."

Leo tickles his wife and she giggles and wriggles into an embrace.

~~~

Fifteen minutes later she pulls the bed covers over them both as they cool down, runs a hand gently over his face. "Do you fancy getting a good shave then?"

"I've never had a hot towel shave before, we've got loads of time, why not?"

"Okay, let's freshen up, have lunch and get your face seen to." she jumps off the bed and nearly has an accident with her foot surfing the bikini top across the carpet. "Frig!" she laughs inwardly, two clumsy people together was better than one.

~~~

They meet Paul and Jasmine at the Grille, ask them if their room is big enough.

Jasmine is quite excited, "It is thanks. We've not been away together for ages, we'll be able to sit and talk while he's doing edits, get out and see the sites when in port. Thank you so much Leo, it was really kind of you!"

"No, thank you! We've got some lovely images of us both thanks to the talents of your husband and my brother Max" he puts his hand over Mattie's, "And thanks to my wife's work I appreciate images in a whole new way these days. Paul, you should show me how to work your camera, let me take some of you both. Max told me how most photographers spend their life on the other side of the lens, don't get into many photos themselves."

Paul looks up from his menu, "Thanks Leo, I'd appreciate that."

Jasmine glances at her husband, "We'd BOTH appreciate it."

Mattie runs a finger down the wine list, "Anyone fancy a drop of bubbly to toast the start of our trip? They've got the champagne we had at the reception."

Leo nods towards the windows, "No more than two bottles though, falling over's a bit more serious on this thing."

Mattie looks at the windows, amazed. "I didn't realise we'd left the port! I don't think I can even feel it moving!"

They order drinks, mixed platters and bread to share. They both tell Jasmine all about their first encounter with Paul at ComicCon; how he'd been jumping, crawling and lying around the cables, how he amused Sophie by hanging off the ceiling wiring tray to get a better point of view.

"That wasn't the first time I'd seen Mattie and Leo, though we didn't properly meet, they had no idea who I was. I don't think you even noticed me, did you?"

Mattie shook her head, "Nope, I didn't have a clue you were there. The first time I knew you'd been the one taking photos was when Louise brought the worn out Hello magazine into the fitting room."

Jasmine briefly closes her eyes then looks at Mattie, "How embarrassing, I've just worked out how I'd seen you before. Paul was selecting images for a magazine. I'd brought him a mug of tea, looked over his shoulder for a moment having seen some of the nice shots of you in your dress." she turns to her husband, "You don't by any chance have them with you do you?"

"I've got a mini SSD RAID set dedicated to the family, it's in the room. And a full backup at home before anyone starts to worry."

Jasmine beams, "Fancy a slide show after lunch then Mattie?"

Mattie's eyes widen, "Yes please! If it's no bother Paul?"

"Sure, it would be my pleasure."

The women talk dresses for the next fifteen minutes. Leo and Paul hardly manage to get a word in, exchange knowing glances when certain words are mentioned about the fit of the dresses and what they do or don't reveal. Leo lets Paul take the last bit of steak and asks a waiter if they can take the rest of the bottle to the room.

Leo gets up first, "Come on ladies, you can bring the conversation too."

On the way to the lift Mattie sees Peggy and Ben, gives them a little wave and a smile, gets them returned.

~~~

Paul lets them in and finds glasses, holds them out for Leo to pour the rest of the champers. Mattie has a bit of a nose around, they've got a good sized double bed, chairs, desk, sofa and minibar. The bathroom is a good size too.

Jasmine takes a glass from Paul and passes it to Mattie, "How's your room?"

"Which one! Leo went and upgraded, we've got too much space really. There's even a baby grand piano in there. And the king size bed is so comfortable you have to fight the urge to stay in it all day."

"Sounds lovely! Do you play?"

"Me? No. The only keyboard I can play has QWERTY keys. Do you?"

"A little bit."

Before Mattie can ask anything more Paul hands out a wireless mouse. "So who's driving?"

The two ladies pull up chairs and start watching the slideshow, Mattie tapping the mouse to pause when they want to natter about the photos.

Jasmine gives an "Awe, isn't that sweet" when looking at a picture of Sophie in Mia's arms. They talk about all the stunning dresses and shoes, how great Mattie's hair looks.

~~~

Jasmine turns to see the men have gone to the far side of the room and are talking, looking out of the portal window. She looks back and pauses the computer. "I'm glad Paul appreciates shoes. He understands how footwear can totally change the look of an outfit."

Mattie turns to see her, frowns slightly.

"He did a shoot with a model to give her some more portfolio images. She had the same outfit on in two photographs. In one she had trainers, looked like she was about to visit the gym. In another high heals, looking like she was about to hit the clubs. The feel of the image changed totally, just by changing the footwear! It drives him mad when other photographers crop people below the knee, especially if they do it at the ankle. He's done some training in the past, told them if you're going to crop do it above the knee or not at all."

"Good advice, I'll pass that on to Max."

"Max?"

"Leo's brother. Can you go back a few images?"

Jasmine taps the back arrow on the keyboard until Mattie calls "Stop!" and points out Max, "Leo's little brother." she goes on to point out the rest of the family.

Jasmine looks a bit confused. "They all look so different, yet they're all family?"

"They're all conscious synthetics. Brought to life to help look after Leo after his bad accident."

Jazmine turns to look at Leo, then back to Mattie. "He looks okay."

"He died. His father did brain surgery to bring him back. He's part synth."

"My good God! How awful for him! He made a full recovery I take it?"

"Yes, and my Uni team helped with the final part."

"Ah, now it all makes sense, the thing your professor got up and talked about at the reception. He's lucky to have found you Mattie."

"We were lucky to find each other. It wasn't an easy ride, he had a bit of a temper until we got the last of his PTSD issues sorted out. He'd work to keep it in check but it was always still there, just under the surface."

Paul turns to see their wives, "Do you still think they're talking shoes, hair and dresses?"

Leo glances across, "Maybe, they look happy enough. What are you going to do before dinner?"

"Sort through images, find the best of set." he sees the questioning look in Leo's eyes. "I always take at least two shots, increase my chances of getting one with all eyes open."

Leo watches Mattie for a moment, sees that they've stopped looking at the slideshow. "Mattie, fancy checking out some of the onboard activities?"

He turns back to Paul, "Fancy joining us for dinner?"

Paul looks to his wife, "We'd enjoy that, what time do you think Jazz? When will you be done with your session?"

"How about seven?"

~~~

Leo orders them both some wine while they wait for Paul and Jasmine. They're seated at a round table with a 'RESERVED' sign.

Mattie gets a txt from Danny, rolls her eyes, "This is from danny", reads it out to Leo. "I called into your Mum and Dads on the way home, got Mr Patches from Sophie. Now that frigging bear want's some code removed, promises to behave, wants a second chance! Do I remove or reflash? Dan"

Leo laughs, "Why not? everyone else has."

~~~

It takes them seven days to get to the first of the islands, taking the long route from Southampton down past Africa towards the equator. Mattie has warmed up enough to brave the bikini and wrap, spends hours on a lounger reading a paperback Max had given her. Leo enjoys relaxing in his board shorts and shirt, finds himself a pair of Ray-Ban glasses. He's slowly gaining a bit of colour. Busy doing nothing, care free and happy.


	29. Chapter 29

Early evening the ship arrives at the next port. St John's, Antigua. The passengers are told that they'll be in the port for the whole of the next day, depart the following morning.

They have an evening stroll around the Antigua town, have drinks at Hemmingway's Caribbean Cafe. A local shows them a brochure for a hotel, persuades them to have a visit. "It's not over the top like some of the hotels the Americans like, you Brits love it."

~~~

Mattie steps out of their room with a thin white sun dress over her bikini and a big floppy sun hat, Leo in his board shorts and open shirt. He pulls the door closed and hangs their room key around his neck.

She reaches out and holds his hand, "Would you believe this is the end of their season? This is their 'cold' time? If we'd come at their peak time I think be burnt to a crisp or melt into a puddle."

Leo looks at some of the staff cleaning up the sandy volleyball area. "That would explain why some are in jumpers. If you've become used to such extremes this would be cold. I wonder how an Eskimo would find this? I'm finding it comfortably warm."

Mattie points to some deck chairs a few feet from one of the palm trees, "How about there?"

"Looks good to me."

As they get to the chairs she spots a coconut on the other side of the tree, picks it up. "Look Leo, it's not split." she gives it a shake, "I think it's a good one!", looks around for the nearest gardener. "Won't be a sec."

She walks across the lawn to the man with the machete. "Excuse me, would you be able to open this for us please?"

The man checks her out, "Sure ting miss. You liking coconut?"

"Yes, my mum gets coconut some times at home."

"Well you be enjoyin dis."

He gets his knife and hacks away at the fibrous husk at the top until the nut is revealed. He then holds it very still and makes a fast swipe. "Nearly." he does it once more. "Der you go miss. Enjoy."

"Thanks!" Mattie looks at the nut, he's taken such a thin layer off it you'd just about fit two McDonalds straws in the hole.

"Leo have a sip of this," she hands him the nut.

He does as asked, eyes widen, "Thats delicious!", passes it back.

Mattie takes a good drink of the milk, "Oh my, fresh off the tree is so much better than the stuff Mum gets!" she sits down with the nut, gets comfortable. "Want some more?"

"No, you found it, enjoy it."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks!"

After a few minutes in the sun Mattie puts down the now empty nut and gets up to take her sun-dress off.

Leo looks at her with loving eyes, "I was right."

"About what?"

"Colours"

Mattie gives her thanks by way of smile and kiss to the air. She applies SPF50 to her arms, legs, feet, stomach and chest, then finally her face. She's got her eyes shut tight, "Blast, did that in the wrong order, now I've got sand on my face." a second later she's hit by a beach towel. "Easy Bunny!"

"Wipe it all off your hands and face and do it again. I would offer to help but I'd only embarrass myself."

"Not turning you on am I?"

"When don't you?"

"Leo! We've only just left the room, get your mind on something else."

She grabs the towel, wipes then puts more cream on, doing the whole thing with her eyes shut. She opens them to see Leo watching some kids having fun with a jetski, "Back in a moment."

Leo puts more suntan cream on his neck and shoulders, they'd gone a bit red the day before. Mattie had warned him about getting burnt, how he'd find it really uncomfortable. Having only experienced UK summers up until now he'd underestimated how fierce the sun could be, how quickly he would burn. Fast! They'd already got a nice colour just from sitting on deck during the last few days.

She returns with two life jackets. "You really like it here don't you?"

"Love it! It's a shame we've only got a day pass to this place, wish we could stay longer."

"Why don't we? I've just booked some activities with the tour people, there's a firm that does helicopter excursions. They could take us to the next island."

"Skip the ship?"

"Yeah, only for a couple of nights. I met a family from Belgium at the activity desk, they said that most of the hotels on the next island are still recovering from a storm that blew through. We'd have to let the crew know so they don't think we've gone overboard."

"Ok, let's". Leo looks at the red jackets. "What are they for?"

"I know you can drive a car. How about riding a bike?"

"I'm sure I'll remember. Mia taught me years ago although I've not been on one since."

"Cool, when the couple of kids out there are done it's our turn."

"On the Jet-Ski?". He holds up his glass, "I'll let you drive", takes another sip of his coconut rum and pineapple.

"It's not even lunch time yet and you're on those?"

"But there so good! So what else did you book?"

"Zip wire in the forrest for lunch time, and a BBQ up in the mountains for this evening."

"Zip wire? What's that?"

"You'll see, it will be fun!"

He gives her a look of doubt.

"Trust me, it will!"

Leo gets up and follows his wife, "Ok princess, if you say so. Looks like those kids are done."

"Princess?"

"If I called you Black Widow in public someone might think you're free to marry again!"

The activity rep helps them buckle up the life jackets. He talks in the deepest voice Mattie has ever heard, a strong Caribbean accent, "I's Del, you's miss?"

Mattie smiles, "I'm Mattie, and this is my husband Leo."

"Right." Del looks at her hand and notices the faint tan line, motions to it. "Wise move miss, only yesterday dis crazy lady lose her ring in de sea, oh mans she made our lives HELL!", gives a massive grin like a Cheshire cat, "We's not get any peace for TREE HOURS until one o'our lads find it on the sea bed!"

He turns to look at Leo, "I's married man, but a lot o'dem local boys will be avin dem eyes on your good lady. Get 'ers cheap ring to show she taken."

"Thank you, I will."

"Best place is duty free next t'port in town or get a local to make sometim more personal."

"Could you recommend anyone?"

The man smiles wide, "Course man, I knows everyone on de island! I find you someone."

The man points out to sea at two buoys in the distance. "You come in and out through dems buoys okay? Nice 'n slow until you past dem. I's coming out in me boat. No getting off in deep water. Ok?"

Mattie and Leo give him a nod. They walk into the shallow water and climb on.

The man shows them the safety line. "Dis goes around de Mrs hand like dis. She fall off and de power stop. You grab her and pull back on quick right?"

Leo nods, puts his arms around her waist.

"Okays, off you goes."

Mattie turns the ignition key and slowly increases the revs. Del jumps in his flat bottom boat and motors off ahead towards the buoys.

"Okay back there?" Mattie calls.

"Fine!"

She brings up the revs even more and gets them moving, follows Del's wake out of the roped off swimming area.

She's soon getting carried away, accelerating at speed across the small waves, turning tight and heading back to shore before turning again. Some times she does a wide arching turn, keeping a good distance from some windsurfers.

Leo calls out over the engine noise, "Sure you've not been a Bond villain in a past life? You're good at this!"

"Scream if you want to go faster Bunny!"

Leo laughs and screams. Mattie raises her bottom off the seat and uses her bent legs to take the shock of the jet-ski hitting the waves.

Leo had taken his arms from around her waste and held onto the rails built into the side of the seat instead.

Leo shouts out over the noise, "Del's waving his arms about, we may be going too far out!"

Mattie reacts with another tight turn to head back in, a bit too tight, Leo had relaxed his grip and goes flying silently off the back. She doesn't notice, see's Del waving his arms like mad, trying to bring their attention to something.

"Leo, what's he pointing at? Leo?". She drops the power and turns to see him, he's not there. "LEO!". She looks around, see's him a good distance away, is just about to squeeze the accelerator and turn towards him when Del's terrible attempts at shouting can be heard, a deep and rough word.

"SHARK!"

Thoughts of Paul's selfie flood her mind, Leo had no safety cage to haul himself into if it got too close. She can't see the threat at first, then a massive dorsal fin breaks the surface. "Holy shit! LEO!". Adrenaline is racing through her body, the universe running in slow motion. She gets the jet-ski moving, has to turn tight on the spot to get it pointing the right way. She's moving fast, the fin faster. She'd be at speed by the time she reached him, there were obviously no breaks. She wants to get between the two and block it's path, but can see the shark is too close and too fast. The fin slowly submerges out of sight. Time feels to be standing still. "LEO!". Mattie is getting closer but is still too far way, Leo vanishes under a wave, doesn't bob back up. Terror grips her as she fears the worst, her eyes stinging from tears and sea spray. "LEO!"

She reaches the spot she'd last seen him at, cuts the power. "LEO!"

She scans the area, the sea is quite clear but she see's nothing, other than Del motoring towards her. She can hardly get the next "LEO!" out she's crying so much.

She recalls the story of him drowning, tears are flooding from her eyes, "LEOOOO!"

"Are you going to help me up then?"

She turns to see him now holding onto the back, kicking his legs trying to get back on. "Oh my God Leo! I thought I'd lost you forever!". She sits down, brings her knees up to her chest and quickly spins around to face him. With the seat gripped tight between her knees she grabs both his hands and pulls with all her might.

They wrap arms around each other, Mattie in tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

He hugs her, "It wasn't your fault, I wasn't holding on properly. Mattie, Mattie, look at me, I'm fine!"

Del pulls up alongside, looking both pleased and confused. "Man I think you a gonner den! Why it no attack?"

Leo has a pretty good idea, will keep it to himself for the moment. "Not sure, still thinking about it."

"Sorry I's no good at shouting, was tryin to warns you."

"Maybe an airhorn would help?"

"True, I's gettin me one after dis. Man you'z lucky! I no believe in that Juju crap but you got some lucky spirit lookin out for you shark boy! Want to head in?"

Mattie wipes tears from her eyes, her body shaking, breath still hitching, "Please."

Leo puts his hands on her hips, "Do that bottom swivel again and stand up, I'll slide underneath you, just don't sit on my face."

Mattie laughs and wipes more tears, "You and your wishful thinking!"

She does as asked and Leo passes her his lifejacket. "Hold it tight, I'll need it in a moment."

She looks down to see his legs coming through, then his lower half.

"Mattie, hold my hand, take a single step back, but not too far. That's it. Hold still."

He gets his legs out to the side and manages to get his head through.

"You can sit down now, grab my shoulders. Can you help me get my jacket on?"

Mattie does so, Leo can feel her arms still shaking. He grabs her hands and wraps them around him. He fastens the safety line and restarts the jet-ski. "Hold on!"

He takes a slow ride into shore, not wanting to stress her out, her breathing still irregular. By the time they get to the shallow water there's a crowd forming.

A very tanned blonde man in short wetsuit wades in. "Dude! How'd you escape that mother! A shark that big could have bitten you clean in half!"

Leo smiled, "I told it I wasn't on the menu today. Told it all about the good things in my life."

"Haha, but seriously, how did you fend it off?"

"As I said, I just spoke to it."

"Yeah, right, and I'm the fucking tooth fairy. Spoke to it my arse! If you don't want to say just say so, don't make up bull shit stories. What a wanker." The man wades off towards the hotel.

Mattie pulls her arms tight around Leo, "Ignore him, he's just ignorant"

Del helps them both get off, "You take care of dis lady shark boy! I gets me cousin to bring some rings over dis evening for you's to try?"

Mattie has calmed down a bit more, "We're booked to go up to the BBQ this evening."

Del lets out a long drawn, "Nice!" and shows his pearly whites. "I's loving me some ribs and good music! I bring them up to BBQ, I see's you tonight shark boy 'n lady!"

Leo takes Mattie's hand and leads her to their room to dry and change. "Do you want to go to the zipwire? We can give it a miss if you want, have lunch here?"

Mattie stops, "It's a good drive, I'll be fine by the time we get there."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

They change into jeans and t-shirts, Mattie remembering a comment from the Dutch lady about bites. They wait for the minibus to arrive, talk to a group of four that are also going.

~~~

Mattie and Leo sit on a bench seat, the father from the group sits next to Leo, his wife and the girls on the seat in front. He turns to his wife, "I'm grabbing more of those plantain crisps if they have them."

"I suspect they will."

Mattie turns, "Are you from London too?"

"Just outside, BR2. And you?"

The woman turns in her seat to see Mattie, "Yeah. It's our second time at the Grand Pineapple. We love it, the owners kept wanting to pull it down and redevelop, make it like one of their bigger sites the Americans love. Us brits just kept coming back in high numbers."

"We're staying for a few more days, hopefully!"

"You've not booked?"

"No, we're on our honeymoon cruise. We got a guest pass, we're going to skip the next island. Love the place too. It's got a friendly family atmosphere."

"That's why we love it. How are you going to rejoin the ship?"

Leo gets a word in, "Helicopter!"

The husband turns, "Awesome! I've only had a short ride in one in the UK, love the things! I'm told Helicopter was my first word as an infant. My parents live under the LBH flight path."

Mattie jumps in, "Biggin Hill?"

"Yes, you know it?"

"Know of it, there was a problem with army synths a while back, a number would have been at the site. My kid sister helped get things under control."

Denise has a look of realisation, "I thought I knew your face, couldn't place it, you're the Hawkins girl aren't you?"

"Elster-Hawkins now."

Mark is swiping through pictures on his phone, "You say 'would have', you know the dead one is still there?"

"What?"

"You didn't see it on the local news?"

"Must have missed it?"

"For some reason it stood at the doors to one of the large hangers and refused to move. It stayed there until it ran out of power a fortnight later."

"Refused?"

"So they say. It kept telling anyone that dared come close that it's original orders were wrong, it's second orders silly. It's final orders to return to base not something it would comply with as it would mean returning to its evil makers. Some of the local kids started pinning poppies to it, it now is plastered in the things. They built a big perspex box around it to keep the rain off."

Mattie puts a hand on Leo's thy and gives a gentle squeeze, getting his attention, "More C than the others?"

"Sounds like it, no idea how."

They chat for another twenty minutes as the minibus works its way up the twisting hill roads.

"Look Mum! Pineapples!"

Denise turns to her daughter, catches a glimpse of them. "I thought they grew on trees, not so close to the ground like that."


	30. Chapter 30

At the Rain Forest Zip Wire centre they're all given gloves, a helmet and harness. They're strapped in tight. Mark is getting odd looks from one of the girls, nods toward Leo, "It's not our fault the straps bunch everything up." She rolls her eyes and resumes her chat with the other girl.

The guide shows them how they'll be clipped onto two steel cables. "There's no way you can fall off. Our wires could carry the mini-bus you came in no problem. When you're on the first long line make sure to smile for our photographer."

Up on the tallest tree waiting for the longest zip wire Denise turns to Mattie and makes an admission, "Why did I agree to this again when I hate heights?"

The first of the girls is clipped onto the line, only to find one of the guides clip on too, go down the line as a pair.

Mattie asks "Which is the oldest of your daughters?"

Denise points at the girl next to go on the line, "That's my daughter, the other girl was her best friend at school."

"Was?"

"Still good friends, different schools now for sixth-form."

"That's nice, they're enjoying their holiday?"

"Yes, more this time, they had revision for mock exams last time, now they can relax."

The ladies daughter gets clipped to the line with a guide, the pair shoot of as he kicks the platform away with his feet.

Denise smiles, "She's enjoying it much more this time."

Denise steps up onto the box, is clipped to the line. Just as she's about to leave Mark calls "TAXI!" and a guide races forward, in a lightning fast move swings his clip up and on and pulls them both over the edge. Denise screams, "Just you wait!"

Mark grins, "She loves it really, just feels awkward letting her inner child have fun."

He's up next, clips on, when given the nod takes a step back and runs to the edge, "Geronimoooooo."

Mattie laughs, "What a nutter!"

Leo smiles, "I like him, he seems to know how to have fun, doesn't care what others may think."

When it's Mattie's turn Leo whispers to a guide. The next thing she knows they're zipping down the line, arm in arm. Leo holds her tight, "This is the closest I'll ever be to being your real spider-man."

The guides grab them at the other end, stop them from dropping backwards. Denise looks a tiny bit annoyed, turns to Mattie, "Please excuse my husband, he's the biggest kid on the island!"

"Not a problem! I wouldn't have just gone down with Leo if we'd not seen you all do it."

"You went together?"

"Yes."

"Sorry, I missed it, I was watching the girls."

~~~

Over lunch Mattie asks Leo why the shark hadn't attacked. "Paul told me they all wore shark repellent electronics. Sharks use the electrical signals put out by potential food to gauge what it is. By putting out a high enough signal the shark thinks it's an opponent or another shark, not food. I think by thrashing my legs instead of drawing attention like other humans my charge circuits sent a big 'F off I'm not your dinner I'm your worst enemy, or a potential mate!'"

Mattie bursts out laughing, has to hold up a napkin, her mouth half full.

Leo frowns, "That's funny?"

"No, it was the 'F off', I can't recall you ever swearing like that before!"

Leo smiles, "Ha, I'm surprised I've not done it before what with my wife's colourful frigging language."

He tries some of the plantain crisps Mark had been enthusing about, holds the open packet out, "These are rather good, might get a few packs myself, try some."

Mattie takes a hand full, makes a face, returns to the book of photos of past guests. She finishes hers and without looking up puts out a hand for more.

Leo hands her the packet, "I'll get some to take back to the ship."

Mattie snickers a few minutes later when Leo returns with a packet and a whole sealed box full. "Don't fill yourself up on them, you'll not manage the BBQ this evening". She looks at her watch, "We've got a few hours before we'll need a taxi, what do you want to do?"

He pats the cushion next to him, "Chill out, watch the rain."

Before she sits down Mattie goes to the banister and sticks a hand out, "Hay Leo, the rain, it's warm!"

He winks, "Shame we left the Herbal Essences on the ship", pats the cushion again. The lady behind the counter looks at the couple, "Can I bring you another drink? Feel free to kick your shoes off and make yourself at home."

With all the other tourists heading off for other things the place becomes much quieter, their photographer and two shop staff join them for a chat.

~~~

Mattie wakes to hear the women talking to Leo, "Sorry, must have nodded off."

Leo runs a hand up and down her arm, "Hello sleepy head, good nap?"

"Yeah, lovely thanks."

The lady that had been behind the cafe counter smiles, "Let me bring you a fresh cup, that one must be stone cold."

"Have I been out long?"

Leo nods, "Hour and a half."

"That long? Sorry!"

The photographer smiles, "Don't worry, you're on Antiguan time, no rush. Your husband has been telling us all about the parties you've been having.

~~~

As they walk up the hill to their dinner at Shirley Heights Mattie starts moving to the reggae music drifting down on the breeze. "I can smell the food from here, I'm getting a stack of ribs."

Leo scoops her up into his arms, starts running up the hill, getting a small scream of surprise.

Mattie wraps an arm around his neck, "What's the rush?"

"I want a double helping myself, didn't you hear the large group behind us? They want the same, I don't want to be last in the long line."

"I think you put enough distance between us, you can put me down now."

"Not yet, the other reason was my charge dipping, I've not been using my legs enough."

As Leo gets to the middle of the cobbled square other couples give him some light applause. Leo's exceptional hearing picks up on one near the band stage. "Why don't you do anything romantic like that?", "I will, I will, give me a chance to find the moment."

Leo turns to see where the voice had come from, turns away quick to hide his face.

Mattie gives him a puzzled look, "Why the smirk?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Why not now?"

"I don't want to offend anyone."

"Whisper it then."

Leo tells her about the couple at the stand, if she looks not to make it obvious.

"Oh my."

"Exactly. Each to their own."

"How do you think they met?"

"No idea!"

She takes another look at the couple. He's a punk. Platform DM boots, hair in spikes, dressed in black tshirt, denim trousers and waistcoat. He's got a studded belt and wide studded wrist bands. She thinks of her father as a punk and fights back the giggles.

His partner looks like she's stepped out of the live version of Disney's Cinderella. They're looking lovingly into each others eyes.

Mattie whispers into Leo's ear. "ComicCon or concert I bet!"

"Shush."

Mattie frowns. A second later Leo nods.

"Yes, that explains it."

"What does?"

"Their ship's got a fancy dress party on all evening. They're talking about how and when they get back."

"Haha, cool, I'm going to say Hi, get a photo"

"Really?"

"Yeah, it might cheer them up."

"Awesome outfits guys did you bring them on holiday?"

"Bits of them, we finished them with things we got in town."

"So Cinders, who's your prince charming?"

The young lady smiles, her costume recognised, "This is Andy, I'm Sally."

"I'm Mattie, that's my hubby Leo", she waves for Leo to join them.

Leo gets a handshake from Andy, "I'm supposed to be Vyvyan Basterd from The Young Ones, but we couldn't get the stars for my head right."

Leo asks to borrow Mattie's phone, only to find there's no signal. "Blast."

"You wanted to see pictures, didn't you?". Andy pulls out his phone, "That was the look I was going for. He's from an old TV series in the early 80s. I wanted to do something nobody else would be doing, not be yet another Captain America or Superman."

"Had dinner yet?"

"Yes thanks, you better join the queue fast if you want ribs, Team Scoffalot are back."

"Who?"

Sally nods in the direction of the group Leo had wanted to get some distance from, just entering the courtyard.

"Oh frig, Leo, quick! We'll see you later?"

"Sure."

Mattie takes Leo's hand and they dash across the courtyard. Just in time to join the queue in front of the lads.

~~~

As Leo's sucking the last rib bone clean he spots one of the BBQ cooks throwing rubbish away. It's all stacked on a thick aluminium foil tray that goes into the bin too. "Seen Andy?"

"Not for a while, why?"

"Got an idea. Fancy a walk?"

"Sure, I'm stuffed!"

They find the couple around the side of the main building having a smoke. "Hi Andy!" Leo calls. "I've got an idea if you still want those stars."

"It's a bit late now thanks, we'll be back onboard in an hour and a half."

"Plenty time! Follow me!"

They all follow Leo to the bin. He pulls out the tray.

Mattie looks disgusted, "Ew, Leo, that's filthy!"

"Not this one, I just wanted to get Andy's thoughts before asking the kitchen for a new one."

"Oh, sorry."

Andy feels the thickness, "That would do it, but what would we cut it with?"

Leo reaches up to Sally's hair, "May I?"

She frowns, "Sure."

Leo pulls one of the very long hair pins and smiles. "I've got an idea. Part Capek inspired". He heads to the kitchen and returns with a tray and pizza box. They follow him to a table. Leo sits down and asks to see the photos again. He zooms into the clearest shot, focusing on a single star. He closes his eyes for a moment, thinking, designing.

He flattens the pizza box and slides it underneath the tray. "Scavenger hunt time. Could someone get me two forks, a knife and a couple of hair bands?"

They all watch in awe as Leo rapidly taps out an outline with the improvised device. He then taps out lines faster from the edge to the middle, perforating the metal, "It's like a sewing machine needle mixed with the traditional tattooing stick they still use in some Asian countries."

Mattie bends down and looks at her husband, "When did you learn about that?"

"Stumbled upon it when researching how the farm may have branded Fred's arm."

He pushes out two of the shapes and bends them, layers one over the other, holds it out in his palm for Andy. "How's that for size?"

Andy carefully picks the star up, expecting fragility, is surprised how stiff it is. "Awesome! Sally, got the latex glue?"

She turns her back to them and hitches the front of her big full skirt, a moment later drops it and turns back. Reading Mattie's face she says, "Belly bag, hides nicely eh?"

Andy uses the glue to stick the star on. He looks to Sally for an opinion.

"That's fantastic! Just need another three."

"No problem, think of the first one as a calibration test. Want a few spares?"

"A couple would be nice, thanks."

Leo tap-cuts the next five out super fast.

Sally's impressed, "Bloody hell, the man's a machine!"

Before Leo can react Mattie says, "He's my Bionic Bunny, aren't you dear? Flesh and bone with a heart of gold."

"I meant he was just so fast!"

"I know, it surprises people."

Andy carefully peels the one star off his forehead while Leo's tapping away without the foil.

"What are you making now Bunny?"

Leo picks up the sheet of cardboard and punches the centre. A well designed shape half falls out. He gives it a prod and pulls it free. "A box to take them back in". He does a number of folds. "Tada!"

Sally looks at Mattie and nods towards Leo, "Keeper!"

Mattie smiles, "Defo."

There's a chuckle and deep "You's a keeper shark boy!"

Mattie turns to see Del with another man.

"Dis is me cuz Alban. He de ring maker."

Mattie gets up and says hello, Leo joins a second later.

Andy looks at Leo, then Mattie and Sally, "Shark boy? You're not the guy that frightened off a great white this morning are you?"

"'fraid so."

"Makes these stars extra special, thanks."

"How?"

"We come here every year, first time via cruise though, a shark death would have ruined the place for ages". He turns to Del and Alban, "How much are the rings?"

"For a friend of shark boy, fifty dollar each."

"I'll take two, one for Mattie, one for Sally."

Leo goes to say something, gets a stop hand from Andy, "These stars and what you did are more than worth it."

"If you insist, thanks."

Sally looks at the time, "How long do they take to make?"

Alban nods to the road they'd come up, "Iz got me furnace burning in de van, fifteen minutes."

"Fifty?"

"One five."

"Can we watch?"

"Sure ting."

The four of them follow the men up to Alban's van. It's an old French Citroen H Van, loads of fibre board up in the rear to protect the vehicle from any burns or spills. A tiny desktop furnace is glowing white hot.

Alban opens a creaky and stiff wooden draw and pulls out some scales, from another he gets some old silver jewellery.

He pulls on some goggles, does a quick check to see nobody is too close and drops it into the furnace.

Within a few seconds it's melting. He gets off his little stool and opens a cupboard. "What sort o ring you like?". He pulls out a very worn folder of designs. Mattie and Sally hold it together and turn through the pages. Mattie turns a page and Sally taps a finger on an image, "That one! Has to be!"

Mattie looks at the design, it's a ring of tiny sharks and dolphins, as if looked on from above. "That's so right! Me too!"

Alban looks at them both, "Me only got de one mould, takes a while to cool else de metal fracture"

Mattie looks at Leo, "We're in no hurry are we?"

He shakes his head, "No, you could make one after the other if okay with you? We'll get you beers and dinner."

Alban checks the number and hunts through the cupboard for the two halves. The first ring is cast and cooling moments later, the mould held in a big old vice. He wipes his brow with a big bath towel, "Right, me's ready for cold beer!"

Leo smiles and goes off to get food and drink for the men.

Mattie decides now is as good a time as any and asks Sally if she's on Facebook. Another holiday friend.

Alban necks the last of the beer and burps, wipes his face with the towel. He puts a bucket on a taller stool, slides it under the vice. He licks his fingers and quickly taps the mould. He does it again, taps much slower. He goes to the back of the van and picks up a bucket of water, returns to his stool and slowly pours it over the mould. A tiny amount of steam is given off. He cracks open the vice and pulls out the mould, drops it onto his bench. It's slowly pulled apart, revealing one half of the ring, beautifully shiny. Sally and Mattie exchange glances. That half of the mould is picked up and submerged in the bucket. With his free hand he picks up a rib and starts eating. "Be ready to finish soon."

He's picked the meat off a third rib when he pulls his hand back out of the water. The ring is carefully pulled free.

The girls exchange looks again, Mattie asks, "Can we have a look please?"

Mattie turns it over in her hand, "It's beautiful Alban, really lovely!". She passes it to Sally. She takes a look, turning it slowly between her fingers, passes it back to Alban, "Totally, lovely". He gets a large hoop of finger rings and holds it out, "Can you find your fit?"

Sally tries a few and gives him back the set, her size upmost. She looks shocked when he takes out wooden rod, slips the ring over it and sets at it with a fine handsaw. "Don't spoil it!"

He turns and grins, "Got to make it smaller somehows. And get de pouring bit off". He shows them the ring again, the bit to be removed. He's fast with his saw, has it removed in a few seconds. He fires up a small blowtorch and solders the ends back together. The rod is rolled back and forth between his palm and workbench, the blowtorch flame on the middle of the design.

Mattie is intrigued by his fabrication methods, "What does that do?"

"Melt de mould join line, it flow flat."

"fascinating!"

Alban takes the flame away and continues to roll the stick. After half a minute he drops it into the water and gets the mould back together and into the vice. He grabs another rib and spins around to face them, "Good ribs, thanks."

Leo offers them another drink, gets a "Arf beer arf lemonade please."

The man finishes off another rib, pulls the stick from the water and slides off the ring. "See it fit."

Sally slides it on, "Perfect! Thanks!"

Alban weighs another lot of old silver, brushes the bits he'd cut off Sally's ring into the mix, drops it into the furnace.

Andy puts a hand on Leo's shoulder, "That's really special, we'll never forget this holiday, thanks! We've got to dash now. Thanks again for the stars."

"No problem! Enjoy the party. And thanks for the ring."

The men shake hands, women air kiss. As they watch Sally wobbling over the last of the cobbles in her heals Mattie rests her chin on Leo's shoulder, "I like them, proves you can't judge books by their covers."

Leo takes out his wallet. "In any hurry to get anywhere tonight Alban?"

The man shakes his head, "Ribs and music is all me doin tonight. And rings. What ya want?"

"A third ring for me please, same design". He pulls out another fifty.

"Sure ting. You av a dance, me comes when de both almost ready". He hands Mattie the sizes rings.

~~~

Half an hour later with the two dancing away, Mattie's arms up around Leo, Del comes and asks them to join Alban.

He's got the workbench clean, the furnace packed away. "Me thinks you like to see me finish them, check de fit?"

Mattie nods, "You read my mind, thanks."

He does Mattie's first, then Leo's. They hold their hand out, fit the rings. Mattie takes hers off and tries it on the other hand, "Perfect!"

Leo frowns a little, Mattie tells him "For when we're back home and I have my wedding ring on. This will remind me of our time here. And it's really special because we watched Alban make it." she gives him a warm kiss.

Leo puts out a hand and smiles, "Pleasure doing business with you sir, really nice work."

"Tanks mister, you elp spread de word?" Albun opens another draw and gets out a slightly grubby business card.

Mattie takes a snap of it and hands it back. "Facebook? I'll let the whole ship know!"

He opens another draw and pulls out a compact camera. "Can me take a photo of yous wid de rings please?"

They pose with the rings, hands up high so Albun can get a mainly head and shoulders shot with the rings more prominent. Mattie turns her back the men and takes a step backwards, holds her phone up high and out. "Group photo please!"

Photos done Leo shakes the mens hands, "Thanks again, if you don't mind I'd like another dance with my wife."

Albun gets down from the van and gives Leo a hug, "Be safe shark boy!"

Del gives him a pat on the back, "Yeah, no shoutin at dem sharks. Got me an air orn, opfully never need use it."

The music has slowed considerably, they rock back and forth to the rhythm arm in arm, turn and see Albun driving away, waving to them both.

~~~

The following day is much more relaxed. They're up early for breakfast and some sun at the beach before getting on a catamaran with Paul and Jasmine. Leo's getting comfortable at the edge of the material deck with Mattie, Jasmine doing the same with Paul by the mast.

The boats owner reaches into his ice box, pushes the lager and vodka out of the way and grabs the rum and pineapple juice. "More drink guys?"

Leo holds their glasses up, "Please."

He changes his position, sitting a little like he had with Mattie in the bath back home. She pulls her hair band and lets it flow in the wind.

Paul sees an opportunity and gets to the front of the boat, turns back and starts snapping. When Mattie turns to look at him he tells her to ignore him, pretend he's not there.

A while later the skipper runs the catamaran up onto a beach, almost sending Paul and his camera off the front. "We're here!"

Paul and Jasmine get off and stand in the surf, have a look around at the beach. "Over there Paul, what d'you think?"

Paul nods, "Leo, Mattie, Jazz has seen a great spot."

Mattie goes to get off the front, Paul puts up a hand, "Hang on, I've got an idea. Walk down beach in the surf, as far as you're comfortable with, then walk back up on the sand. There won't be footprints in the sand leading away from me."

"Oh, okay, sounds like a plan, come on Leo."

Paul gets several dozen shots of the couple holding hands, walking up the beach towards him. The breeze gets stronger every now and then kicking up Mattie's hair and moving Leo's shirt. "Lovely! Keep coming, I'm shooting slightly cropped now."

Mattie laughs, "I hope you're cropping above the knee."

Paul turns to Jazz, "You told her?"

She smiles and nods.

Paul turns back to shoot some more. "Yes! A tip to pass onto your brother Leo. Keep coming. Lovely! Now stop and face each other. Great. Mattie can you brush your hair all to your right side. That's it, lovely.. Hold that!" a few more seconds and Paul lowers the camera. "Ok, done!"

They walk over to Paul and chimp the images.

"Oh I love how the breeze caught my hair and wrap in that one!"

Leo, his left arm hanging on her left shoulder, moves his hand and gently caresses her neck. "You look beautiful Mattie, these are better than the image I had in mind, thanks so much Paul. Time you gave me a quick lesson on that camera."

Paul spends ten minutes telling Leo about the mechanics of photography, composition basics. He goes through the images he'd just shot, asking Leo to try and describe what he'd done to get each photo.

Leo looks from the camera to Mattie and Jasmine, "It's a lot more involved than point and shoot. I didn't realise just how much thought Max must have been putting into his photographs. Okay, your turn to be models."

Leo's getting quite into it when the skipper calls out, "Lunch!". They head up to the palm trees where he's set up a small BBQ. He holds out a plate to Jasmine, "Jerk chicken, ribs or both?"

Leo looks out to sea, picking the meat from his last rib. "It's so peaceful here, Mattie, could you do me a favour?"

"Sure Bunny, what's that?"

"See where that hermit crab is trying to move the massive shell? Sit on the other side to it and just relax, move around a little."

Mattie gets up, "Are you going to photograph me?"

"Not with a camera."

"Ah, you want those sorts of memories of the holiday."

"For rainy UK days when we're working in different places."

After a few minutes of playing with the sand Mattie takes off her wrap and reaches to her back, "Paul, Jazz, skipper, can you all look away for a few minutes please?"

The skipper sits down next to Paul, the three sat facing the island.

"Thanks, Leo, close your eyes a second."

She takes off her bikini top and brushes her hair to the seaward side, "Leo, you can look now."

Leo is surprised at what he sees, but doesn't complain. He laughs, "Fred caught Toby watching Babe Station one night, told me about it. I looked at it just out of curiosity, you're way better!"

The skipper can't resist and sneaks a peak, quickly turns back and whispers, "Nice!"

Leo hears it but resists saying anything that would stop his wife.

"Got enough Bunny?"

"Yeah."

"Keep looking away guys!"

Mattie crawls on her hands and knees to Leo, crawls right over him and lies on top, gives him a passionate kiss.

Thirty seconds later she races back to her bikini top, shakes the sand from it and puts it back on. "Okay, I'm done!"

Jazz walks up and whispers to Mattie, "Can you shoot something of me if we walk to the other side of the island?"

"Can you show me how the camera works?"

"Sure. I shoot all the brides getting dressed shots for Paul."

"You do boudoir? I wish he'd said!"

"We don't offer it, the bride has to ask."

"Oh. Oh well. You wanted some photos for Paul?"

"No video. I'll explain on the way". She turns to her husband, "Paul darling, can I have the camera for a bit please? And do you have a spare storage card?"

They leave the men to talk, head to the other side of the small island.

When Mattie's sure they've got enough distance from Leo's hearing range she asks, "So what was your idea then?"

"Do you know the bit in Die Another Day when Halle Berry walks out of the sea?"

"Yeah, she looked gorgeous."

"I've got one of those digital photo frames for Paul's Christmas present. I've been secretly learning how to do something in Lightroom. Want to see how long it takes for him to notice, see what he says."

"To notice?"

"He HATES vertical video. But I might be able to change his mind a little."

"How?"

"I want you to film me stepping out of the sea onto the beach, walking up to the lens and blowing a kiss. I'll take a frame at the beginning and make it a static video, making it look like a photo. Only after 15 seconds it will then turn into the normal video."

Mattie laughs, "I think I know where you're going with this!"

Jazmine stops and turns to Mattie, "You do? Let me hear it then."

"You want to see if his gaze stays on the image long enough to see the kiss?"

"Exactly! Oh I do like you Mattie. You and I should hang out back home."

They take a few attempts, Mattie working on keeping Jazz in focus as she gets closer.

They shield the camera from the sun and watch their last attempt. "Purrrrfect Miss Moneypenny."

Mattie laughs, "Thanks, you're the first to say something that's not Bond villain!"

"Would you like to do one for Leo?"

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Mind? After we got whisked away to this place instead of cold, wet, windy UK? Are you kidding me! Of course I don't mind!"

"Thanks!"

"As we're talking Bond, do you want it 'For Your Eyes Only'?"

"You mean something only Leo can watch? Like topless?"

"If you want, I was thinking beach boudoir. You could drop the bikini top and wear the sheer wrap? Then if anyone else gets to see it it's more tasteful?"

"You're good at this stuff, why aren't you doing more?"

"Don't know really."

"When we're back home I'm having words with Louise."

Shoot done Jazz pulls the card from the camera, slips it into her bikini top. "For our eyes only for the moment. We'll need to find something Leo and Paul can do so we have the Mac to ourselves for a few hours."

"Has Paul had one of those hot towel shaves?"

"No?"

"Great, male pampering session it is. If we get them the full works they'll be away hours."

Jazz holds her hand up and they high-five. "Who runs the world?"

"Girls!"

~~~

Their third day is even more chilled out, Paul and Jazz having left to board the ship. They walk up the hill to Mary's Shack at lunch time, have a few beers and sit in the shade chatting. Leo finishes his bottle and looks out to sea, quiet.

Mattie twists her ring, moving a dolphin right so a shark can be at the top. After a prolonged silence she looks out to sea too, "What are you thinking?"

Leo turns on the bench to face her. "That shark. Did it just get a barrage of electrical noise from my legs and thoughts going through my head? Or was it able to make some sense of what I was thinking?"

Mattie has a belly laugh, almost wobbles off the bench, "Telepathy with a shark? Are you serious?"

"Why not? A dolphin can work out if a mother is carrying a child by echo location. Wales do some clever things. Who knows what the brain of a shark is capable of? You can't say 'What are you thinking?' to it and expect an answer."

~~~

They have a nice dinner on site in the restaurant up by the library, guests of the management. The manager is polite but initially nervous, wanting to know all about the shark incident. "We've not had a shark come into shore like that until you arrived. Could you have attracted it in some way?"

Leo puts the man at ease. "Yes, I've got a medical implant, we think the electrical field was acting like a beacon."

"And why wouldn't it have attacked?"

"Because when it got close enough to hear the signal properly it didn't like what it heard? Maybe. It's just an educated guess really."

"More dessert?"

Mattie's eyes widen, "Yes please!"

Leo smiles, his wife had gone crazy in the gym leading up to the wedding, supposedly to counter all of Mia's cakes. She'd gone a bit too far. The curves he'd loved so much had been returning.

The manager asks if they've done the walk to Devil's Bridge a short distance up the coast. They decide to visit it in the morning before returning to the ship.

~~~

An early helping of poached eggs on toast and orange juice in their bellies they start their walk. It takes them way longer than expected, they get there to find the tide quite high. They ask a local selling jewellery where the bridge is as they can't see one. She walks them to the edge of the rocky outcrop and points, "Keep watching."

They do so, after a while the waves drop a little more than normal and reveal the submerged bridge.

Mattie turns to the woman, "Why Devil's Bridge?"

"Local myths say slaves jumped to their death from it."

"Just myths?"

"Yes lady, no proof."

She thinks of Fred and Max, how unkind humans can be, not only to synths but each other.

They head further up the coast and find a beautiful almost white sand bay. With the only access being by foot it's theirs alone. They spend a couple of hours messing around in the surf, not a care in the world.

Mattie is on her back, resting on her elbows, waves lapping at her toes. "I wish we'd got Paul to come along, this place is so beautiful."

Leo wades out and goes hunting for the flotsam and jetsam. He finds a plastic milk crate, several branches and stones. A few minutes later he asks Mattie if he can borrow her hair band. "How do I get a count down timer on your phone's camera?"

"Self Camera Timer app."

He sets it up and taps, races to the water and slips, vanishes into the sea legs first.

Mattie's cracking up, "Shame that wasn't video, you could have sent that into You've Been Framed!"

Leo tries again, this time setting it to take a sequence of photos a few second apart. He wriggles out of the surf and up to his wife, blows a raspberry on her belly, getting fits of laughter and a cuddle. "We better head back, we've got to change, pack and catch that helicopter in St Johns."

~~~

The helicopter ride back to ship doesn't bother Leo, he's quite enjoying it. Mattie's not so comfortable with it at first, "It's so loud! Even with these headphones on!"

She gets a bit more excited when the pilot points out a pod of dolphins, descends to only feet from the sea, matching the pods speed. The pod slows, starts swimming around the helicopter in a large circle. Leo finds a strap and puts it around her waste, holds it so she can lean out to see them. The pilot calls out, "There's a better strap in the overhead webbing, you can stand out on the skids if you want, do it bare foot so you're less likely to slip."

Mattie fell in love with the cheeky things. She couldn't hear them over the noise, but their actions, they were magical. She ignored the spray the helicopter was kicking up, getting her wet. "Leo, can you put my phone camera app into video mode and pass it to me please?"

After a couple of minutes Leo tugs on the strap, "Sorry Mattie, pilot says we've got to go."

Landing on the helipad at the back of the ship brings more attention than she'd anticipated. "Guess they don't see one of these that often."

The pilot hands them their bags, "I'm usually dropping film or rock stars like this, they'll think you're a celebrity!"

Mattie rolls her eyes, "Don't you start!"


	31. Chapter 31

It's dinner time but Leo seems to be taking them in the wrong direction. "Leo where are we going now? I'm sure we're not supposed to be here, the carpet stopped ages ago, this looks more like crew only space. I thought you memorised all the floor plans?"

"I did, up here."

"Do I look dressed for climbing stairs that look more like a ladder?"

"I'll be behind you, you'll be fine."

At the top Mattie waits for him, confused as to where they're going, no corridor to follow in what looks like a dead end. Leo turns the lever on a big heavy weather sealed door, has to step over the frame to get through. Mattie is hit by a blast of warm evening air. "Where are we?"

"The highest point on the ship I could persuade the captain to let us visit". He holds out a hand and helps her step out into the small space. A table only a couple of feet in diameter has an ice bucket with champagne, a red rose by it's side.

Mattie takes in the view, "Oh Leo, it's beautiful!"

The ships lights are on, the sun close to setting.

There's a knocking of something metallic behind her. "How are my favourite spiders tonight?"

Mattie turns to see Paul.

"Just a few snaps before the sun sets and I'll leave you to enjoy the view."

Mattie puts her arms up around Leo's neck and looks lovingly into his eyes. "I'm so glad I found my spiderman, can't imagine life without you."

"Nor I without you"

Paul had been working the limited space like the usual pro he was, chimps the images and says "I'm done, got to dash, we've got a table reserved."

Mattie turns and gives him a warm smile, "Thanks Paul, enjoy your evening."

She watches him go and sees the leaver for the door turning, sealing the door shut. She turns back to Leo to find him opening the bottle. "This is quite sweet, what made you do this?"

Leo smiles, "You did suggest I take the lead more. Curiosity got the better of me, I looked up your favourite word. This ship doesn't have rigging like the old sailing ships, but it got me thinking about locations."

"You've lost me, my favourite word?"

"I don't plan to here but did you know that 'Frigging in the rigging' is an old term? Supposedly meaning playing with oneself onboard a ship because there's nothing better to do". He hands her a glass. "Cheers!"

A glass of bubbly inside her Mattie whispers into his ear, "Next lesson in taking the lead. Things don't always need to be planned, you can be spontaneous".

"What? Here? In public?"

Mattie laughs, "It's hardly in public, nobody can look down on us, we're at the top! And I doubt anyone will be through that door for a long while."

Leo pulls her close and slowly gets to work on her zip, kissing her neck and shoulders. Being part synth had a number of benefits. The ability to accurately map his wife's most responsive areas in detail and never forget them ensured he satisfied her needs every time.

They're entwined on the steel floor, their clothes carefully placed on the small table.

Mattie giggles, Leo stops, "I didn't tickle you did I? I'm not touching any of your ticklish spots."

"No, I just had a silly thought pop into my head, sorry."

"What was that?"

"If there's a ship equivalent of the Mile High Club." She holds the back of his head and pulls him into a kiss before he can respond, tongue exploring his mouth.

Ten minutes later and she's breathing heavily. There's a loud phut-phut-phut as a barrage of launches start, she arches her back.. "Oh my God I'm going to .."

Before she can get the word out the sky is filled with bangs as the fireworks explode into a multitude of stars. A fraction of a second later the ships horn comes on full blast. She shudders, wraps her arms around him and kisses all over his face. The horn finally stops. Mattie's smiling, crying, shaking with laughter, "I know I suggested you take the lead a bit more but this is over the frigging top!"

"You think this is my doing?"

"Yeah, another of your WiFi hacks."

"Not this time, nothing to do with me I swear!"

"You sure about that?"

"Honestly, it took me by surprise!"

Leo roles onto his back and watches the fireworks, hand in hand with his mostly naked wife. He laughed to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing much". Mattie gives his hand a shake. "Just if Max told me years ago that in the future I'd be on my back, naked, except for a pair of socks, watching fireworks, at the top of a cruise ship having just made love to my wife I'd have sent him in for a full systems check!"

Mattie pulls his hand up to her face and gives it a kiss, not wanting to take her eyes off the spectacular display. She gives a big sigh when the last of the fireworks has gone out, the smoke drifted out to sea on the evening breeze. "Eleven out of ten Mr Elster-Hawkins, even if you arranged only half of that! Can't see me being able to top it!"

"It wasn't me, honestly. I arranged the location, drink, rose and photos. That's it. You're all the fireworks I need." He pulls her hand over and kisses it. "Want to finish the drink?"

"Downstairs, I've got that steep staircase to get back down."

They watch the stars for a few minutes then Leo gets up and passes Mattie her clothes. "Best keep those shoes off for the moment."

~~~

Back in the first of the carpeted areas Mattie is surprised to see Peggy on her own. "I'll see you in the room Leo."

Leo nods, says hello to Peggy and heads to the lift.

She joins her, "Everything okay? Where's Ben?"

"Oh he's fine, resting up after our evening stroll. I'd wanted to catch you, I'd not seen you around the last few days." Peggy offers Mattie a hair brush, it's not taken.

Mattie looks totally confused. "You did? How did you know where I'd be?"

"I overheard your photographer friend talking to his wife about some photos he was going to be taking for Leo, knew the spot he was referring to. I wanted to see how you looked when you came back down, welcome you to into our little circle if appropriate!"

Mattie blushes, "You mean like a club?"

Peggy gives her a nod and knowing look. "I may be an old bird now but in the fifties we knew how to party too dear. Before Ben's kyphosis brought our dancing careers to a halt he was quite the hunk. Of course it wasn't this ship, far smaller, but we had done something similar."

"I'm being obvious again, somehow you read me like a book".

"Oh it's easy dear, once you've had a little practice. You were at a UK port and not wearing deck safe shoes, they can get awfully slippery in the wet. There's only a light breeze tonight yet your hair looks like you've been in a bit of a storm."

Mattie puts her hands up and feels the slight mess.

Peggy turns Mattie gently, "They're fading but the backs of your shoulders have little diamond shaped impressions from the anti-slip floor."

Mattie covers her face in shame.

"My dear, some of our circle think it has brought them very good luck, they've gone on to have extremely successful lives. Being in a supportive group of already powerful women didn't hurt of course!" Peggy starts brushing Mattie's hair. "Not all our members are so daring, some join for other reasons."

"Thanks Peggy. I've already been lucky beyond my imagination. After I met Leo my world changed. I was given an award and massive party for helping save a friend and detain an evil man". Mattie has to pause a second for her stomach to settle as thoughts of Hobb's smashed leg return. "Then on my birthday, which was also our wedding day, my professor tells me I've been awarded my doctorate early as I've won The Nobel Peace Prize!"

Peggy stop brushing for a second. "Oh congratulations my dear! I would have welcomed you for your doctorate alone. I don't believe in luck. We make choices that turn out to be good or bad. We choose to be in the right place talking to the right people at the right time." she resumes the brushing.

"I wish I had a grandmother like you Peggy."

"Your grandmothers are no longer with us?"

"No, it's not that, it's .. complicated."

"People often are. I wish I had a granddaughter like you Mattie." the bond between the two women was made. "I hope my little gift didn't startle you?"

"The fireworks, that was you?"

"I know the captain very well, he felt he owed me a favour so I called it in"

"You couldn't have timed it better even if you'd been stood over us watching with the switch in your hand!"

"Stood ov.. Oh my! Were you.."

"Yes."

"There's a first! Or a first anyone's admitted to."

"How come the captain thought he needed to do something like that?"

"We've invested in the cruise line over the years, we're not majority share holders but quite significant ones. The dividends help our funds from diminishing too fast. We help him out by being unofficial monitors, help him nip issues in the bud before they become a problem. Ben and I won't be around much longer, he'll need someone to take up our place."

"Don't say that."

"It's the truth, sad as it may be. I'd love to pass on some of my knowledge, it would be a shame to let it all die with me. You don't know anything about tablets do you?"

"Yes."

"I was given one by the crew as a gift. I'm supposed to be using it for feedback, they say my handwriting is getting too spidery. I've no idea what to do with it."

Mattie thinks about the words Peggy had used a moment ago, "You chose the right time to ask the right person then."

"Oh fantastic! Thank you my dear!"

~~~

As they both sit down for dinner Leo looks around the plush restaurant. "How come we've not been in this one yet? This is rather nice. It's Friday, I wonder what they're up to back home? Think they've had another takeaway party?"

Mattie looks at her new watch, "Four hours time difference right? Tob's probably drooling over The Whitmore now."

"What?"

"Who not what, who. Laura Whitmore. Hosts 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here, Now!'"

"Ah, that show, I did hear him talking about that. He said he'd right in an put your name forward."

"You're pulling my leg!"

"I'm serious, that's what he said."

"I'm no celebrity!"

Leo pulls a 'You serious?' face. "Hello Magazine? NPP? Paul told me they've already got wind of it and want photos from our wedding! And if you do a shoot after the award presentation that would make three. I think that more than qualifies you!"

"If he thinks I'm going anywhere near some of those trials with thousands of cockroaches he's dreaming! I don't feel like eating now, can we go for a walk?"

~~~

Mattie turns off the AC and opens the balcony doors, "It smells of old socks in here!". For the first time she bothers to step through the doorway and leans on the banister. Her subconscious knocks. Something had been been on the right. She turns to look. "Wow! Leo! Did you know this was here?"

Leo comes outside to take a look. "That looks like fun. How do you think we turn it on?"

Mattie looks at a panel, "The green button maybe?". She gives it a press. The jacuzzi starts to fill with water. "Bloody brilliant!" she heads inside to get some bubble bath. A few minutes later she returns in one of the dressing gowns and hands Leo the bottle. "Wow that filled fast! Pour a drop in would you dear?".

She tests the water with her toes. "Perfect! Want to slip into a dressing gown?"

Leo returns to find Mattie's head above a sea of bubbles.

She raises a hand and blows some towards him then grins, "I think you overdid it a bit with the bubble bath, getting in or just watching?"

Leo slips off the robe and gingerly steps in. Her hand breaks free of the bubbles and presses another button while he slides down, lets the air jets do their thing. "That. Is. So. Good!"

They enjoy the jacuzzi's massage for a few minutes. Leo opens his eyes to see even more bubbles, "Remember what I said at home when I slipped in the bath?"

"Yes. And in answer to the question you're about to ask, Yes!"

Leo closes eyes, grinning. "Good. We could extend the bathroom into the small spare room. Get a his and hers shower too. I think we still need more bubbles."

"More? We'll disappear under them!"

Leo's eyes dart back and forth. She misses it, her eyes now closed.

Fifteen minutes later there's the sound of the piano being played badly.

Leo, taps Mattie with a foot, "Awake still?"

"Yeah, was that our piano?"

"Yes, stay under the bubbles. YOU CAN COME OUT THANKS!"

The concierge pokes a head around the corner, sees it's safe to come out and brings a wine cooler and bottle. "It's our best Prosecco, sorry, but we're out of your favourite Champagne. I'm told by my manager the restaurants have been getting a lot of 'We'll have what they're drinking' orders."

Leo laughs, "Not a celebrity eh?"

Mattie gives him a playful kick under the water.

The concierge leaves and returns a moment later with very short table and tray of finger food. "The Captain is curious as to how the email was sent, it didn't appear to be sent from any system we recognise. And there's only one g in Champagne."

Mattie rolls her eyes. Leo defends his error, "What? You try creating an email with your eyes closed! I am human!"

"Mostly." Mattie grins and touches him under the water with her big toe.


	32. Chapter 32

The following morning they decide to walk the promenade after breakfast.

Leo spots a young child in a Jedi costume looking very unhappy, holds Mattie's hand and walks over to see the boy, puts on a voice, "Hello I'm C-Me-Leo Human Cyborg Relations. Is everything okay?"

The boy looks up at him, then continues to tap his plastic light sabre on the ground, "You don't look like a cyborg, I've lost my Mum and Dad."

Mattie crouches down and winks at the boy, "Our secret, but my husband is in disguise. He's half cyborg. Is the link between a family of synths and family of humans."

The boy looks up again, "I know you're just trying to cheer me up, thanks."

Leo crouches down too. "What the princess said, it's all true. What's your name kid?"

"David."

"Hello David, I'm Leo. I can use the force. Watch this". Leo closes his eyes. They can be seen darting left and right under his lids. They open and Leo grins.

David isn't impressed, "So what anyone can do..."

Bing Bong. The ship tannoy comes on, "Could the parents of Jedi David please come to the gift shop entrance on deck five". The message repeats in a number of other languages.

"How did.."

"Like I said, The Force. We'll wait until your parents get here okay?"

David is looking much happier, "Are you a magician?"

"Not really. There's no slight of hand, no distraction, no making you look the other way while I do something I don't want you to see"

"So what you did was real? Not a trick?"

"No trick, just used the force."

~~~

David looks up at the couple approaching, "Mum, Dad! Leo's a REAL Jedi!"

David's mother introduces themselves, thanks them for letting the crew know where her son was. David's father does the head thing Sophie did so well, "How did you get the crew to get the message on the tannoy?"

"They didn't. It's a synthetic voice. I just asked it to say a message for me. With The Force."

David's father makes a "Humph" noise, "There's no such thing, I wish these films wouldn't fill their heads with such rubbish!"

"Dad!"

"Come on David, say goodbye."

Leo closes his eyes for a moment. The tannoy comes back on. "Ladies and gentlemen, Jedi David's parents Darren and Jane have been found, all disturbances in The Force have gone!"

"See Dad! I told you!"

Darren's jaw drops.

Jane roles her eyes, "Darren, catching flies?"

Her husband snaps his mouth shut. "How did.."

"As I keep having to say, The Force! Why is nobody listening?"

David's parents lead him away, Darren constantly looking back at Leo and Mattie with suspicion, David looks back, smiles and waves.

Mattie shakes her head, "Try and help a kid out and that's what we get, an annoying father. At least David and Jane looked to appreciate what you did. How did you do it?"

"I've been learning other protocols and API. I snooped the radio, there's a shipwide hidden WiFi network for crew use. The tannoy isn't well protected as they don't expect guests to go anywhere near it".

"You hacked the ship?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, I can't see any sign of any critical systems on it, nobody's going to be able to take over the ship with it. Only have the tannoy read out messages, check vending machine levels, other harmless sensors."

"So you gave it two messages in English and it translated it into the others?"

"Yes."

Mattie does a Spock eyebrow. "Fascinating!"

"How about a bit of a rest before we change for dinner?"

Mattie looks at him with uncertainty, "Do you really mean rest?"

"Yes! The heat has got me drained. I'd rather slap the charge coil on for a bit and just cuddle."

"You? Just cuddle? I know what a cuddle normally leads to."

"I'm shattered, suspect I'll be fast asleep before you know it."

Leo's not wrong. In the cool room with lovely soft freshly laundered bedding he's soon fast asleep. She carefully slides her arm out and reaches over to the phone. "Hello, yes, can I have a wakeup call for six thirty please? Thanks."

She turns and wriggles into position, face to face with her husband. He's looking contented, enjoying the comfort of the bed. She kisses him oh so lightly, "Sweet dreams Bunny". She closes her eyes and soon falls asleep.

Twenty minutes later and she stirs, her head touches his. She dreams of an adventure on a distant planet with her Storm Trooper, an Ewok, Boba Fett and Obi-Wan. Nobody is getting hurt, just having fun jumping into little space ships and flying around an asteroid field. The Ewok is surprisingly good considering how small it looks in it's seat. They're single seater ships yet her Storm Trooper is at her side, pulls off his helmet and gives her a kiss.

Mattie wakes to hear the phone ringing, feel Leo's lips against hers.

She turns and pick-drops the receiver, turns back to Leo. "I've just had a weird but wonderful dream."

"Me too."

"What was yours about?"

"Flying."

"So was mine!"

Leo moves his head back to see her face properly, "Was Sophie an Ewok? You were my Princess?"

"Yes. Were Danny and Toby Boba Fett and Obi-Wan?"

"Around the asteroids?"

"Frigging hell! How did we do that?"

"I have no idea!"

"I wonder if we'll be able to do it again?"

Leo puts his head back against hers, "If we could learn how to control it, use it when awake it would be brilliant."

Mattie does a stretch, "We better get ready for dinner, come on, up you get."

~~~

Leo has a number of kids come over to their table. They stop and just stare at him.

Leo looks around the group. "Can I help you all?"

The youngest, a little red haired girl in pony tails nods vigorously but doesn't say a word.

"I'll need to know how I can help you."

The little girl takes a deep breath and in a single sentence says "David said you're like a magic man but you're not a magic man but you can use the force to do good things and we want you to prove it". Message delivered she crosses her arms and gives Leo a look he'd had from a young Sophie years ago.

Leo looks around the room, "Where is David?"

An older kid towards the back answers, "His Mummy and Daddy wouldn't let him come to dinner tonight. He's eating in their room"

"That's not very nice of his parents is it?"

The little girl shakes her head with equal vigour to her nod, almost whips her own face with her hair.

"So I can do anything I like as long as it proves David wasn't fibbing?"

The little girl nods less aggressively. The others copy her.

Leo looks at Mattie with a squint, as if trying to read her mind for inspiration.

He closes his eyes for a moment, thinking. "I know!" his eyes flash back and forth, faster than before. With them still closed he turns to where he knows Mattie is seated and whispers "I'm getting better at it, might even get Danny to make some gadgets around this, just for us." he opens his eyes, job done. He grabs his glass and takes a sip of wine, looks up around the ceiling. "Translation delay I bet."

Bing Bong: The synth AI voice calls out, "The Force would like all parents to give up the Dark Side and come celebrate their children's vivid imagination. They are our future, our imagineers of tomorrow. Free ice-cream for all Jedi visiting restaurants in the next one hour. No age restrictions apply."

The kids start yelling and jumping up and down with excitement. Leo catches the eye of a waiter and waves for him to come over. He whispers in the mans ear, "The ice-cream is on me, please charge it all to our room. Tell the captain we're friends of Peggy and Ben, doing our little bit to help out with encouraging guests of the future."

The waiter nods and hurries off to the restaurant reception desk.

Leo looks around the kids, "Go on then, find your parents and enjoy the ice-cream."

A young lad doesn't move.

Leo smiles at him, "Is there a problem?"

"My Mummy can't have ice-cream."

He looks to Mattie for help. She smiles at the boy, "Tell your Mummy that the Jedi's Princess says she can have whatever she wants."

The boy thanks her and races off to his parents, almost taking out a waiter.

Mattie reaches for her wine, "That was nice of you."

"I'm feeling exceptionally happy this evening, thought I'd share it around."

Mattie reaches over and places a hand on his. "What do you fancy for dinner then?"

Leo laughs, "A back to front meal. Ice-cream first in case they run out!"

~~~

While they're having their fish main, Mattie looks at the fish spine, recalls something Peggy had said. "Remember me commenting on how Peggy and Ben moved? How I couldn't put my finger on it? They were both professional dancers. How cruel it must have been for Ben to suffer like that and have to give up the thing he loved. D'you think Fred could do anything to help him?"

"I'll talk to Freddie, Ben is very old, I'd be worried about his recovery from surgery."


	33. Chapter 33

After breakfast the following morning Mattie decides it's about time they had a tidy up. They'd told the ship staff only to clean when asked. She finds one of the laundry bags and sorts out the growing pile of clothes. She talks to the pile as if it could answer back, "How can a man so smart keep losing socks! He only wears the frigging things when we change for dinner." she picks up a black sock with green at the toes and heal, "So where is your partner? I have persuasive means, talk!" A thought pops into her head and she frowns, "I'm going mad! Talking to a sock is one thing, thinking it replied another!" she goes to the bed and sticks her ear to the carpet, looks under the bed. "Ah! There you frigging are!"

Leo had walked back in, sees his wife in an interesting position. "There I frigging am? Um, not sure how to respond!"

"You what?"

"Have you been reading the book I found in the charity shop?"

Mattie gets up, "I think we've got crossed wires. What were you talking about?"

"You first."

"I couldn't believe where one of your socks ended up. And you?"

"Oh. Doesn't matter."

"Go on."

"No really, it doesn't matter."

Mattie puts her hands on her hips, "I'm not going to stop asking until you tell me."

"I thought that was a new position from that book."

"Oh!". She grabs him by the shirt and pulls him forward. "Want to experiment a bit do you?"

Leo blushes, "Just an idea."

Mattie plants her lips on his, gives him a kiss. "Keep the thought for later this evening then bunny boy."

"The image is already saved."

"You men!"

"I came to tell you I'd had a reply from Fred."

"Good news?"

Leo reads a message on his phone from Fred. "ProDisk-L is on the market, a total disc replacement, if it was disc problems. Can do something if vertebra, they're just small bones, my speciality. Think kyphosis might be an incorrect diagnosis if Ben was a dancer and hadn't had problems from childhood. I'll need to see him in person, arrange some MRI scans". He puts down the phone. "Can you persuade Peggy and Ben to stay in London for a few weeks?"

~~~

Mattie and Leo are sat on the deck catching some afternoon sun.

"Hello my dears, is this a convenient time?"

Mattie opens her eyes and shields her face from the sun. "Hello Peggy, sure, what's up?"

"Hello Peggy."

"Hello Leo. Mattie, I've found that tablet thingamajig the crew got me."

"Ok, let's find somewhere to sit together."

Mattie is handed the iPad Mini box, it's seal broken. She looks quizzically at Peggy, "Have you taken it out of the box yet?"

"No dear, I wouldn't know what to do with it."

"Someone has."

Mattie unpacks it, finds it still has it's factory applied screen protector. On powering it up it reports 98% battery. "That was kind of them, they charged it for you."

"Would it need charging often?"

"If you don't turn it off, every few days."

"How would I do that?"

"It comes with a plug and cable, I'll show you in your room if you'd like?"

"Thank you dear, that would be nice. Do you have one of these?"

"No, I use a Slate 5 Pro these days, made by their main competitor. My Mum has an old one, Dad's got my sisters old iPad mini and she's got the new Pro. I'm quite familiar with them."

The next half hour is spent chatting, demonstrating and practicing the basics and some of the apps.

Peggy is most interested in messaging, email and photos. "What does your sister use hers for the most?"

"ICT and DT for school. And loads for fun." Mattie installs and shows her YouTube and Facebook.

Peggy is picking things up quite quickly. She's doing little flourishes with her fingers before tapping.

Mattie suspects something, "Are you remembering actions in some form of dance notation?"

Peggy beams, "My dear! How observant! Congratulations you're now an official People Watcher!"

"People watcher?"

"Deck shoes and messy hair?"

"Ah, that . Cool."

"How do you remember things?"

"Images. The sillier the better."

"Such as?"

Mattie racks her brain trying to think of something. "You were professional dancers in the early sixties?"

"Yes."

"Ok, In my mind's eye I've got you both in a dance embrace, one leg each out to the side, only Ben is wearing the 60's short dress and you the long flared trouser suit."

Peggy laughs, "I can see how that would work."

Mattie finds herself in Facebook and hovers a finger over the button to send a friend request.

Peggy nods, "Go on dear."

The request is sent and Mattie's phone chimes. She picks it up and accepts the request.

Peggy holds out a hand, Mattie takes it. "Thank you my dear, many of our circle use Facebook I'm told. I'd never used it before, not having a computer. I guess we're now officially Internet friends not just real friends."

Mattie's heart warmed with that. Her relationship with her mother had strengthened year by year but another strong woman to confide in made her feel great.

"Hello ladies how are you getting on?"

Peggy doesn't turn, knows the voice so well. "Fine thanks dear, how did your checkup go?". She now turns to see her husband.

"Great! No change in the warfarin, but he's taking me off two sets of tablets. I'll rattle less."

Peggy passes him the iPad. "Mattie helped set this up, have a look."

He tucks it into his trouser waistband and pulls out a small pouch. From within it he gets a tiny pair of folding glasses with spring ends. He wraps the springs around his ears and holds the tablet up to his chest. "That's very clear! What sort of things can you do with it? Could I read a newspaper with one of these?"

"Sure, The Times and many others do a digital version. They have video too, not just still pictures."

Ben wipes a tear, "I've not been able to read a paper properly for years, folding pages is just too much. I'll borrow this now and again if you don't mind Pegs."

Mattie looks at Peggy, "Would you excuse me a moment?"

She quickly walks over to the nearest member of staff. "Excuse me please, how much longer will we be in port?"

The man looks at his watch. "An hour miss, but the port gates will shut in 40 minutes."

"Thanks!". Mattie turns and races to Leo. "Slip your shirt on dear, I need your help. We don't have much time. Got your sand shoes with you?"

"Yes, what's up?"

"I'll explain on the way."

She watches Leo moving slowly. "Tell you what, put them on in the lift down to the gangway."

"That little time?"

"Yes". Mattie is fast, has taken off her shoes and is running barefoot.

"COMING PRINCESS!" Leo grabs both shoes and starts running after her.

She looks back over her shoulder, "Keep up! 40 mins until the gate closes." In the lift she sets a timer on her phone.

"40? That's quite a while? Where are we going?"

"That shop in town with the computer stuff. I want to get an iPad for Ben. Only in my mind I keep muddling the town up with St John's, need your photographic memory."

"That's very generous of you."

Mattie laughs, "Seen the bill for the ship worth of ice-cream yet?"

"You've got a point". Leo bends down and ties the first of his shoes. "And you need my help because?"

"I've no idea where it was or what it was called. I'm hoping you can help me get there quickly"

"Ok, let me have a think. We did cover our tracks several times over before we stumbled upon it." He does up the last shoe and leans back against the lift wall, eyes closed, thinking.

"Got it. It was some distance from the peer. I'm surprised they get enough passing traffic to stay in business. They must do a lot of advertising or get people refer others to them. I've worked out a route."

At the bottom of the ganway one of the ships security calls after them, "The port will be closing the gate soon!"

Mattie yells back, "We know, we'll be back soon!"

Leo stops and holds his arms out, back to her. "Jump on!"

"You what? Surely I'd slow you down?"

"Let's see!"

Mattie jumps on, "Go on then Bunny, think RUN!"

Leo, route in mind, starts running. Slowly at first as he adjusts to the extra wait. Then his speed increases in step changes. He's already covered several hundred meters.

"Woohoo!" she shouts, "Go Bunny Go!"

Leo's speed continues to accelerate, Mattie has to hold on tight as he leans to take corners. She sticks two fingers in her mouth and makes a shrill whistle to warn others they're coming.

"Um, Leo, how are we going to stop?"

"Stop? I was thinking more of crash land!"

"Frigging hell Leo! Been reading those books Max loves?"

"Yes, seriously, if that guy has inflatables up I'm using them as airbags."

"And if he doesn't?"

"I'll have to switch to Plan B very fast!"

"Which is?"

"Not something you want to be worrying about!"

After another two turns into different streets Leo turns the final corner. "Great! Hold on tight, both arms and legs around me!"

He slaps face on into two large dinghy, creates a dinghy-dinghy-double human sandwich. "Ouch!"

With his legs suddenly stopped he drops into a rugby style dive, skidding along the smooth concrete ground. The first of the dinghy rips and pops, Mattie screams. They continue skidding and finally bump into a shop front.

"We're here!"

"You sure?" Mattie rolls off, laughing her head off. "LEO! I do love you shark boy but you're frigging mad! If we ever see Denise again I'm telling her that her husband has a rival for Biggest Kid title! You need to work on your deceleration if you think I'm taking a running piggyback from you again!"

Leo rolls onto his back, looks up, "How much time do we have left?"

Mattie gets out the phone and checks the timer. "Wow, 31 minutes! Easy!"

She pulls out her hairband, flicks her hair back and forth a few times and does the band back up, pulls the bottom of her dress down. She checks her reflection in the glass. "Right. One iPad coming up!"

Leo walks back to the shop selling inflatables to pay the owner for the two dinghy he'd wrecked. The man smiles, points to a radio, "I 'ears about you crazy English man in Antigua over at de Pineapple, you shark boy right?"

Leo nods, "Sorry, yeah, that's me."

The shop keeper grabs his hand and gives it a furious shake, "You new legend to de islands, I shake your hand!"

Leo laughs, "Easy, don't break it!"

"For you sixty dollars!"

Leo was about to point out how each had a $25 sign on them but then thought it best to just pay the man, not question his ability to do math when excited. He'd escape the vice like grip and be free. "Okay. I'll need my hand back to get my cash?"

Leo finds Mattie leaving the shop, bag in hand. "Did you get it okay?"

"Yes, we've got 27 minutes left."

They decide to walk back, Mattie thinking fifteen minutes would be more than enough. She sees Leo repeatedly making a fist and opening his hand. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just seem to be becoming a celebrity around here."

Mattie laughs, "Maybe Toby should be writing in and putting your name forward instead?"

They grab waffle icecream cones on the way. Leo looks around, "Have you seen a single Persona Synthetic since we left the UK? Either onboard or on one of the islands?"

"No, expect we'll see plenty when we reach America. What made you ask?"

"Just an odd feeling, like the electrical field Mia and the others put out."

"That's interesting."

"The field?"

"No, you said Mia, not Max, Fred, Nis or Karen. Missing her?"

"I guess so, missing having them all around. But we'll see them in a few weeks. And I do have you" he squeezes Mattie's hand.

She checks her phone, "Not a bad estimate, fourteen minutes."

"We've got a few seconds to spare then."

He turns back to the path they'd crossed, leading his wife to the spot he'd had the odd feeling. "There it is again."

Mattie looks around, nobody is close by. "How close would a synth have to be?"

"Under 5 meters I think."

"There's nobody here Leo, human or synth."

"So where's it coming from?"

"Sure it's not just some random electrical field from power cables in the ground?"

"No, it's more complex than 50Hz mains. Ground." he looks down at the pink path, looks at other surrounding sections that connect to it. "Oh shit!"

"What?"

"The locals might make our WAP look like a kindergarten."

"I'm not following you?"

"Remember Del's 'Juju crap' comment? I think there is a synth below us. Or maybe bits of one. Noticed how the concrete colour is less faded here?"

Mattie feels repulsed by the idea, jumps backward onto the grass, "Oh hell!"

Leo grabs her hand, "Let's get out of here!"

They turn the last corner. "Oh frig, that doesn't look good". The gates to the port are closed. The security guard on their side of the gate sees them approach, steps into the sunlight.

Mattie points at the ship. "We're passengers, can you let us through please?"

"I'm sorry but the gates are closed, nobody in or out until it has departed."

"You don't sound local, where are you from?"

"From here, went to Cambridge."

"Oh, nice. But we were told the gate would close in forty minutes. I set a timer." the phone is unlocked, "We should have thir.. twelve minutes left!"

"Sorry, I'm just following orders."

Leo steps in, "So who's to blame? The port for closing the gate early or crew giving us the wrong time?"

"I don't know, my shift started after the gate was closed."

"So the port could have made a mistake?"

The man picks up a clipboard, looks at his watch. "I can't be sure. All I can confirm is that it should depart in twelve minutes."

Leo puts his hands on his head, elbows out, paces a little. "Why would you have a delay between gates closing and departure if not for sorting out problems like this?"

"Sorry, still not opening the gate."

"Call someone!"

"Sorry, my phone's down."

"This is madness!" Leo turns and looks at the ship, thinking. He turns back to the man, "How long have you been doing this job?"

"Three weeks."

"Figures!"

Mattie steps forward, "Did you say depart in twelve?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Oh for Pete's sake!"

Leo spins around. "You said Pete. Think. How do you communicate with him most of the time?"

"Text, why?"

"Can you txt Peggy?"

"No, it's not a phone. But I can Facebook message her! Leo you genius!". She grabs him by the neck and plants a kiss.

She switches to the app, writes a quick message and hits send.

The seconds tick past fast, Mattie paces back and forth, not taking her eyes off the phone. "Come on Peggy! Please read it!"

A very aggressive looking man with really long dreadlocks and unusual body piercings is slowly walking towards the port. He's not got the usual bright happy colours of the locals. The small radio he carries is playing the local station. Whenever he gets near someone he untunes it, getting static.

Leo casually walks up to Mattie, hands in pockets and kicks a stone to the curb, whispers, "Don't look. Please don't look, deadly serious, but I think the local WAP rep is on his way over."

"Where?"

"Don't look, or this honeymoon could end abruptly. The man with the radio."

She looks at the guard. "How long now?"

"Five minutes. They've taken a lot of the ropes away, looks like they're about to bring up the gangway."

"Frig! Come on Peggy!"

Mattie taps a message into the phone and hands it to Leo, "Seen the latest news from the UK?"

He frowns, looks at the phone and sees her text: 'Any way to use the phone to create radio noise?'

He types No and hands it back.

"Snow in the UK, Toby's going to be freezing." she types again and hands it over once more.

Leo reads the message. '6 meters. At all times. Stay by guard, pretend you're my servant or something, just not partner'

"Oh I love your piercings, they're unusual!" she rushes over to the man, gets up real close looking at them all.

Leo slowly ambles closer to the guard. He notices that Mattie has the man so distracted he'd not touched the radio yet.

He nods at the guard, "Being a minder can be fun some times, sometimes they're sweet, sometimes they can be a right royal pain in the arse, if you know the expression!"

The guard smiles, "I know it well. I had to look after my younger sister when in the UK. At least you get to hand them back at the end of a shift right?"

"Thank God yes! I don't think I could cope with this one twenty four hours a day! Just look."

Mattie was dancing around the fellow, up close and personal. "Got any weed?"

The man looks at her with suspicion, "You smoke?"

"4:20, spliff, weed, you know what I mean, I can smell it on you. Go on, give us a drag."

"Wha 'bout 'im?"

"My body guard? Doesn't touch the stuff, says it gives him a headache."

"'E a bleeder?"

"What, you mean like blood and bone?"

"Yeah man, bleeder."

"Yes, of course he is."

"Prove it, I give you weed". The man pulls a knife.

"Are you fucking crazy?"

"You show me 'e a bleeder or I stab 'im sees for me self." he untunes his radio, gets static.

"Ok, you get the joint ready, I'll get your proof." she grabs the knife from his hand and walks at pace to Leo. "Arm out! Now!"

Leo does as asked. Mattie thinks coconut, whips the knife past as quick as she can but with minimal contact.

"What the fuck!"

Mattie turns and heads back to the man, Leo has his other hand over the wound, blood dripping down his arm.

She holds the knife out, blade first, her face in an angry snarl. "They call me the Black Widow. Do you know what black widow spiders do to their mates? People don't mess with me. Now give me that fucking spliff or I'll prise it from your severed dead hand!"

She does a short lunge towards him, knife close to stabbing him, but not actually touching. The man's taken by surprise, drops his radio on the ground. The cover pops and the batteries spill out, roll towards the curb. One vanishes down a storm drain.

"Okay! 'Av it! Crazy white bitch!"

"White bitch? Remember who's holding the fucking knife?". If looks could kill the man would have died there an then. He takes several paces backwards to get some distance from her.

There are two long blasts a pause then a long, short, long, short from the ships horn. Mattie turns to the guard, "What does that mean?"

"Are you a princess or ministers daughter?"

Leo smirks, "She's Princess Matilda, look her up!"

Mattie calls out, "That's Princess Mattie if you don't mind young man!"

Leo looks at the guard. "What does it mean?"

"According to my training it means that they're missing a critical person. Key crew member, royalty or government."

Lee comes running up to the gate, ship side. "There you are Mattie, Leo, Peggy said I'd find you here. Sir, please let the Princess pass."

The guard looks flustered, "Oh, sorry, I didn't know, so sorry your highness!" he gets the small pedestrian part of the gate open, "Again, sorry!"

Mattie keeps a straight face, holds out a hand, "Leo, would you accompany me?"

Leo smiles, "Yes my lady."

As they pass along the peer Mattie throws the knife and spliff into the water. "Leo, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, a light flesh wound, remember I've had far worse. I could hear everything you were saying, great acting, I think you saved my life then!"

"It wasn't all acting. I was so mad I was quite prepared to hack the bastards hand off!"

When they're at the top of the gangway Mattie turns to Lee. "Princess?"

Lee wipes his brow, "I got a hurried message from Peggy via the Captain, came running. I take it you're not a real princess then?"

"Unless Leo Elster was a prince and didn't know it, no, just a doctor."

Leo waves a finger, "And Nobel Peace Prize Winner!"

Lee laughs, "As good as royalty but minus the headaches that go with it, that's what the Captain will say, remember those words."

"Allegedly won it Leo, remember I've not received it yet."

"Why would the professor lie?"

"He wouldn't."

"Well then, you've won it."

Lee looks at Leo's arm, still covered by his hand. "We've got a medical team onboard, lets' get that cleaned up and dressed."

Mattie looks at Leo, has a realisation. "My God! I'm not throwing up at the sight of blood!"

Leo smiles, "Drawing your husbands blood to save his life has cured you?"

"Looks like it!"

In the infirmary Leo is given a number of jabs and has the wound cleaned. It's not deep enough for stitches. The doctor looks at him, "Are you good with pain?"

Leo nods, "Yeah, why?"

"You might know this as super glue. It was originally developed as a field dressing for the army. It will sting like hell for a few seconds, it will help prevent a thicker scar."

"I'm ready."

The doctor motions to Mattie and the nurse on duty, "Can you assist please?"

He tells them how the skin needs to be gently pushed to close the wound, wiped dry ready for the glue. "Don't take your eyes off Leo's arm for a second, I don't want to glue either of you to him."

Leo looks at the nurse, "She's pretty, you can glue her." Mattie raises an eyebrow. "This one too otherwise she'll only get jealous."

"Thanks a bunch!"

"Your welcome dear. You know I'm joking, I'm not into blondes". He looks at the nurse, "Sorry, nothing personal."

The nurse just smiles back.

Mattie watches the glue drying. "Is that what spray on plaster is based on?"

The doctor looks up, "Yes, same sort of idea."

The doctor gently taps Leo's arm. "All good, just a dressing needed over the top to keep it dry."

Mattie's phone chimes, she grabs it off the table. "Cool, Lee's told Peggy where we are, she's on her way down."

As the doctors getting the last length of tape onto the dressing Peggy knocks on the open door.

"Come in Peggy, thanks for talking to the Captain, you saved our bacon!"

"My dear, what on earth happened?"

"I cut Leo."

"To prevent me from being stabbed to death!" Leo adds.

"Why would someone want to stab you?"

"Complicated. I'll tell you all about it when I show you how to charge the iPad."

"Now is good if you are?"

"Fine by me. Leo?"

"Sure."

~~~

Peggy opens the door to their room. It's a suite, smaller than theirs but much bigger than Paul and Jasmines.

Ben is sat in a chair a bit like an Easyboy, but it looks a bit more like a vehicle, it's got a number of mirrors on stalks off the arm rests. "Hello Mattie, Leo, how are you both?"

Leo finds the mirror with the reflection of Ben's eyes. "We're good thanks Ben, thanks to your wife. Neat solution to your problem. I have a proposal for you, once Mattie has sorted out your iPads."

"iPad." corrects Peggy.

"iPads." corrects Mattie, handing her the bag. "I thought Ben might appreciate being able to use his own."

"Oh my dear, you are such an angel! Is this why you ran to the port?"

Mattie nods, "Yes, I felt I owed you one, now two!"

Peggy gets the box out of the bag and unpacks the iPad. "Now, let me see if I can remember what we did." she gets a tiny notebook from a pocket and pulls an incredibly thin pencil from it's spine. "Ben, what username do you want, your proper name is taken?"

"Benjamin Bunny."

Mattie looks at Leo, mouths "Another Bunny?"

Moments later Peggy puts the pencil and notebook away, "Which papers would you like Ben?"

"The lot!"

Peggy turns to Mattie, a questioning look on her face.

Mattie shows her the News app, "It's a single app that takes light summaries from a lot of sources into one place. Or you can install the dedicated app for each paper."

Ben wiggles his feet, "I'll have them all please."

Leo is looking at all of the Black & White prints that cover many of the rooms surfaces. Most are of the two of them in dance productions.

Mattie shows Peggy how to plug hers in to charge, see the little lightning symbol pop up by the battery percentage icon.

Peggy looks at Leo, "You mentioned a proposal?"

"Yes, how would you feel about returning to the UK with us? My brother is an expert surgeon, did the Hobb leg reconstruction you might have heard about some years ago."

"I did, that was your brother?"

"Yes. He'd like to get Ben some MRI scans and give you his opinion."

Ben shifts in his chair, "To what end?"

"To straighten your back."

Ben reaches out and shifts one of the mirrors, looks at Leo's face. "I've not stood straight for many years, the surgeons I've seen have said it's too acute, can't be operated on."

"You've not met my brother Fred."

"That good is he?"

"That and more."

A tear runs down Ben's face. "I'd give anything to dance with you once more Pegs."

Peggy turns to Leo, "We'll join you. Can you sort out a hotel?"

Mattie shifts her chair back, "Hotel? No way, we've got plenty rooms free at our house."

"We wouldn't want to impose."

"After you helped give me such a great memory to cherish for the rest of my days and saved us from trouble at the port? No, you're staying with us. And it will give us time together, talk about the circle."

Ben chuckles, "That's it, sold!"

Peggy looks up from the iPad, "Ok Ben, we'll do it". She slides the iPad over, "I think it's ready for Ben, could you give it the once over? If okay hand it to him?"

Mattie does as asked, "Well done, looks fine". She gets up and takes it to Ben, gives him a run through of how to turn it off and on, unlock it and launch the apps, switch between them. "Any problems you can ask Peggy to drop me a message."

"Can't I drop you a message myself?"

"Sure, let me add Facebook apps for you."

A minute later she accepts the friend request, gives him a quick demo.

"Thank you Mattie, most appreciated."

"You're welcome Ben, hope you enjoy it."

"I already am dear, already am."

Peggy slides hers into her handbag. "Thanks again. We have a request for you."

"Sure, what is it?"

"From the Captain."

"Okay?"

"He'd like you to join us for dinner tonight. His private quarters."

Mattie looks over to Leo, "We've no plans do we?"

"No, we'd love to Peggy."

"Good, I'll let him know, thanks. Dress code is something stunning. You'll be competing with his wife."

"His wife is onboard?"

"Yes, she's in charge of supplies procurement."

~~~

Mattie steps into the dress and pulls it up, pulls and pushes bits into position. She checks herself in the mirror, steps into the bedroom to see Leo have an accident. "Careful clumsy, why'd you go and do that?"

"I had a non-maskable interrupt."

"Oh yes, what was that?"

"Seeing you!"

"You like the dress then?"

"Do I! I don't think a man onboard wouldn't, straight or not. It's quite .. revealing. I hope the Captains not an old man."

"Do you think it's too much?"

"Maybe, but Peggy did say stunning, it's that alright! I don't want you changing, I love it. Where'd you get it?"

"Mum took me dress shopping in London for the award ceremony, this was an immediate No! at the time. Being a bit more body confident I went back a month ago, they still had it. In three sizes, this was the largest."

"It fits you perfectly."

Mattie turns to show her back. Leo steps close, his breathing heavy.

Mattie can hear it, "You okay Bunny dear?"

"Yes, just, um, getting a bit turned on."

"Technically there's less on show than when I have the bikini on, so how does it have you in a state?"

"Good question. The tease factor maybe?" he steps closer to kiss, Mattie backs away.

"You'll have to be patient, we've got to be there in ten."

Leo looks closer at the dress. "How is it staying up? I'm not seeing any straps. Or wires for that matter."

"The top of dress is lined with a special sticky flexible silicon rubber." she gives him a wicked smile, "You'll literally be peeling this off me tonight."

A moment later she sees Leo moving awkwardly. "Oh for frigs sake think Hobb for a second or go sort yourself out."

Leo turns, "I've got something a bit more pleasant than thinking of Hobb these days."

"And what's that?"

"Calculating Pi to 3.14 million places."

"Hardware assisted?"

"Of course."

"Still sounds very boring!"

"Exactly! Could you help fix my tie please?"

Mattie does, then slips into her sparkly high heals. Leo rolls his eyes, "Oh boy, Pi to 6 million, give me a moment."

~~~

Mattie knocks on the door, looks down at her chest and suddenly worries that she's gone too far with the dress. "Got everything under control Bunny?"

"Sure, I'm good now."

Too late to change now, the door is opening. Peggy looks her up and down, "My dear Jessica! What have you done with Mattie? You look stunning!"

"Mattie smiles, thanks Peggy, not too much?"

Peggy leans close and whispers, "Possibly not enough if you want to win the competition you'll find yourself in", "Come in, Leo you look most handsome!"

Peggy introduces the Captain and his wife Clara. She's in something remarkably similar to a dress Mattie had also said no to. The black one with two v shaped slits. She had to be using tape somewhere, the dress was defying the laws of physics.

The Captain turns to Leo, "So Leo, how are you enjoying married life so far?"

"Very much thank you sir, we've had quite the adventure! And some nice relaxing time too."

"No need for the sir here, call me William."

Clara compliments Mattie on her dress, "You look just like Jessica Rabbit, especially with the way you've brushed your hair over."

Peggy laughs, has to hide behind a napkin for a second, "I'm so sorry my dear, rude to laugh, just realised you're both rabbits; Bionic Bunny and Jessica Rabbit."

Clara smiles across the table, passing the wine bottle, "You should wear it to one of those convention things our daughter likes."

"You mean ComicCon?"

"That's the thing! You're not bad, you're just drawn that way."

Mattie makes an mental note to get another wig. "Leo and I have already been to one, they're great fun. That's where we met Paul our photographer."

Mattie gets out the phone and shows Clara the images.

"Wow, Saffy would love a shoot like that, does he have a studio?"

Mattie turns to Leo, frowning, "Um, not sure, the subject's not come up. Actually, yes, sort of, he uses one above the wedding dress place we got the dresses from."

Mattie returns the dress compliment, adding "Very Angelina."

"You think so? Thank you!"

Peggy explains that she's been passing on some of her People Watching skills to Mattie. Would they all mind assisting with a little test? She pulls cards from her bag, passes them to her.

Peggy explains, "There are four statements on each card. Two cards per person. Mattie will read out all four statements and pick the one she thinks is true. To start on an easy set ask Leo his."

Mattie flips through the cards and finds the first for Leo, chuckles. "When did you write these out? Okay, first set.

"You told Mia about the man on the moon.

It was you that hid Mr Patches from Soph.

You let Toby win the arm wrestling game.

Leo is short for Leonardo."

She puts down the card, "Really? You let Toby win?"

"Yes, well done."

Mattie turns to Peggy, "Did everyone volunteer the four statements?"

"Yes dear, why do you ask?"

"Just checking. So Clara". She looks at the card and memorises the four lines. "Blimey, trying to make it harder for me?

You've had mole removal surgery

You've had dental implant surgery

You've had skin cancer removal surgery

You've had breast implant surgery"

Mattie looks down at the card and spots something, quickly looks through the others, this one is in a different handwriting. "Did you write your own card?"

"Yes."

"What had you done to your teeth?"

Clara looks across to William, "Boy she's good", she turns to Mattie. "I was a bit of a tomboy in my teens, had a mountain bike and would go riding in the forrest with my brother. We were having a race one day, I misjudged a move, smashed into a tree face first, knocked my front teeth in. The hospital had to pull them."

Mattie grimaces, "Ouch! That sounds horrible! Bet that hurt."

"Yes, having the implants screwed in was the worst bit."

"But you can't tell now, they did an amazing job."

Clara does a massive smile, "Thanks Mattie."

"Now you William:

You hate having synths onboard.

You had you a deed poll name change.

Clara snores in her sleep more than you.

You like Clara in black more than colours."

Mattie squints slightly for a couple of seconds, "So what was your name originally?"

"Bartholomew. Hated it with a passion. Well done!"

"Thanks. Your second card is in Peggy's handwriting Clara. Haha. Oh my. Let's see if I can keep a straight face recalling these. You don't want to own a male synth because:

You'd want to have sex with it.

They're an abomination to all mankind.

You're worried William would be its BFF

You'd want a synth copy of William made."

She holds her gaze, doesn't blink. "Really, sex with a synth?"

Clara blushes slightly, "You should have met the islands governor, his synth, oh my!"

Mattie looks at William who smiles at her, "We're open and honest with each other. I know all about it, understand it somewhat, he was so charming, the ladies loved him."

Mattie puts down the cards, "How come there are no synths onboard?"

"The islands governor had one, the one Clara likes. He went missing the last time we were in port. A passengers synth was badly cut too."

Leo puts a hand on Mattie's thy and gives it a gentle squeeze.

Mattie flicks through the cards and puts them down again. "Thanks for doing these, you've passed."

Clara looks confused, "We've passed? I thought this was a test for you?"

Peggy shifts in her seat, "Sorry for the deception, Leo and Mattie needed to know how you really felt about synthetics, your true thoughts not what you say in public."

Leo brings his hand back up and puts both hands palm down on the table. "In answering Mattie's cards you've not only let us know what you honestly feel about synths, but also which one is likely to be stuck near the port."

"Stuck?"

"In concrete."

"Oh my good lord! Not sweet Tobias please!"

William looks at Leo, puzzled, "How could you possibly know?"

"He's sending out signals."

William places a hand on Clara's, keeps his eyes on Leo, "How could he be powered up still?"

"If he's buried in concrete he wont be moving at all, has probably powered as many circuits down as possible." he glances at Mattie, "Like you did when we saved Max." he looks to Clara, "If he powered down most of his cores too, just kept the absolute minimum running to support basic thinking he could probably run for a few months off a full charge."

Mattie shudders, "A living hell! Can you imagine what it would be thinking if fully conscious?"

"Nightmare!"

Clara looks confused, "Fully conscious? What do you mean?"

Mattie shows them the family album, explains the whole story of Leo, his father and siblings. How Leo had used the ships tannoy, sent emails.

The Captain turns to Leo, "So that's how you did it. We have a launch we use for royalty. I know the Governor well. If I give you two of my security team for protection and two other staff to assist could you help recover him?"

"Yes. Especially with the extra insight you've given us."

"Insight?"

"You've been using the words he and him not 'it'."

~~~

Mattie kicks off her heals, "That was a interesting evening, lovely couple aren't they?"

"Yes, and I'll promise to take one of their traits onboard."

"Which was that?"

"No secrets."

"Oh yes? So, tell me what you REALLY think about my dress."

"All my Christmas gifts have come early."

Mattie laughs, grabs his crutch, "How are you spelling that?" she gives him a kiss, hand still holding tight, "Just make sure it's the only thing that's early!"

~~~

"Oh crap, radio man's back! And he's got a new one."

The ships staff keep him at a distance, make it very clear they're armed and have the governor's permission to use their firearms.

"'Ow you find it?"

"Juju."

"Der's .."

No such thing? Mattie knew they had him by the balls.

Leo wobbles, has to grab Mattie's arm. He turns his back to radio man, whispers. "He's talking to me!"

"Who? Radio man, juju?"

"No, the synth! He can sense the digging. I enabled WiFi, he found me."

"Can you talk back?"

"Yes."

"Ask him if he can sense us digging to his left or right."

There's a slight pause. "Yes, he can. To his left."

"Everyone, stop! New plan!"

She walks over to one of the crewmen and holds out a hand for his pick. "May I?"

She holds it handle up and taps the head against the path, looking at Leo. He nods, "Left." Tap, "Left."

Mattie looks at the surrounding areas. "I'm assuming he's face up?"

"Yes."

Tap, "Closer, still left." tap "Above, knees." tap "Above chest."

Mattie looks at the tiny marks she'd left, pictures Max on the kitchen table. She takes some small steps and taps again, looks to Leo, "Head?"

Leo nods.

"Ask him if his arms are by his side please."

A moment later Leo says "Yes. He also says he powered down to a single CPU core to cut RF emissions to a minimum, fool them into thinking he was off."

Mattie thinks of the alternative. Had he'd allowed them to power him down properly it would have been game over, never to be seen again. She takes a few large strides back and taps again, "Past his feet?"

"Yes, he thinks."

Mattie uses the pick end to scratch out the perimeter. She looks up at radio man, "You're frigging evil!"

"Dem tins is evil!"

"Oh really, what evil did it do?"

"Exist!"

"Oh go fuck yourself you ignoramus!"

"Mattie!"

"Well he is, and he deserves to be behind bars not watching us! Can't one of you talk to the governor and get him away from here?"

One of the security guards turns to see Mattie, "They've got even the police frightened of them, they won't touch him."

"I'm not, got some cuffs? Have one of them deputise me and I'll take him myself!"

Radio man grins, thinks he has the upper hand.

"I'll call him, let him know what you suggested."

Mattie hands back the pick and gives the men instructions to carefully dig up the ground surrounding the block length, where to cut into it on the width. "You listen to Leo, if he says stop, you stop immediately. Please."

The men agree and get to work, ten minutes later the shirts come off as they get hotter. One stops and looks at Mattie, "This isn't a just a thin path, it's a massive block! Can't we use power tools?"

"And risk putting a massive crack in it, damaging the governor's synth? We need to do this like an archeological dig. Slow and painful, sorry."

The man raises an eyebrow, wipes his forehead and gets back to work, swinging the pick overhead, chipping away at the concrete. "I sure hope the Governor will appreciate this!"

Ten minutes later the governor himself arrives with two police officers. Radio man thinks of making his escape until the ships crew unfasten their firearms. The governor points to Mattie, "This young lady has the balls to cuff and arrest this man. Which one of you is going to grow a pair and do what you should have done many weeks ago?"

Both men look at Mattie, decide they don't want to be the wimp, reach for their cuff. The governor smiles. "Bravo! Two sets of handcuffs! Lock him into the back of the Jeep, we'll sort him out in a bit!"

He walks over to Mattie, "Thank you for your help. How did you know where Tobias was?"

Mattie introduces Leo. "If you can assure us that radio man can't hear us I'll tell you."

"Radio man?"

Mattie explains.

He turns to his men. "Take him away, if he tries to scare you with his rubbish just remember he's been using a common radio - technology - no magic, juju, witchcraft."

His men smile and nod, head to the car. A moment later they drive away at speed kicking up a load of dust.

Mattie and Leo reveal how they knew.

The governor shakes Leo's hand. "Tobias was, is, my loyal aid. He'd been a great help in bringing order to the area, his ability to remember and recall facts rapidly was priceless. It's no wonder the criminal element wanted him out of the way."

Leo rubs his chin, "Did he have any mods done?"

"Some, in England, before he was shipped out, why do you ask?"

"I'm not sure the standard self preservation code would have triggered such a drastic power down to a single core. He's got some good 'smarts' to have done that."

Mattie looks at the excavation work, "You said England, why not America, it's closer?"

"I was told the best modder was in England, London, was I given incorrect information?"

Mattie and Leo exchange knowing glances. She looks back at the governor, "No, quite correct."

Leo offers to do some of the work but is told there are only two pick axes, relax and keep talking to Tobias.

One of the men with picks calls out, "I've hit sandy clay!"

They all gather around. Mattie looks at the depth, "Do you think the launch could carry this?"

"Sure, if we can find a crane to help lift it. It will sit low in the water but it should be fine."

The governor looks concerned, "You want to take this away with you?"

Mattie crouches and runs a hand over the slab, "Yes, I want to work on the finer cutting myself. We're talking quite a few days work. And I don't want to be away from the ship that long. I want Leo there by my side, letting Tobias know how things are going. And I want to be miles from any friends radio man might have. If it's okay with you?"

The man grabs Mattie's hand as she stands and gives it a shake, "Of course, anything you need, just ask!"

"Well some heavy chains and something like a crane would be a start."

He gets out his police radio and calls in. "The first officer to commandeer a vehicle from the road works team that can lift a concrete block the size of a small Nisan gets a week off on full pay!"

~~~

Just over twenty minutes later they're all laughing as a race of diggers, large tractors and other vehicles come into view, a cloud of diesel smoke behind them.

Mattie shakes her head, "I would have said we were spoilt for choice, but only one of your men looks to have brought chains."

The governor beams, "We have a winner, Meezuss, tell your wife to pack a bag, I'm throwing in a hotel stay!"

~~~

Chains are being carefully fed under the block. One of the pick men, Ian, is upside down in the gap, suspended from a chain hanging from one of the runner up vehicles.

He calls out, "UP PLEASE!". When he's just clear he yells, "STOP!", gets his hands on the block and walks them to the other side, "FORWARD! BIT MORE! DOWN THREE FEET!"

Half a minute later his colleague waves to the operator, "Up!"

The man comes up, really dirty from the mud, a chain end in each hand. "Done!". He drops the chain ends on the grass and does a handstand, unhooks his legs. He gets up and smiles at Mattie and Leo.

Mattie looks at the dirty muscle covered man, thinks of the Magic Mike film Franklin had persuaded a number of them to see at the cinema. It had been one of their best PTSD sessions for Leo, the team had felt pumped.

He sees Mattie's unbroken gaze, "Can't say I've ever done a job like that before! I enjoyed the challenge. If you want someone to help back onboard I'm more than willing to give you my off duty time, not that I get that much."

Mattie gives him a grateful smile, "Thanks!"

The other man steps forward, "No hogging the work Ian, I wouldn't mind being part of the team either, if it would help? I'm Joseph."

Mattie thought fondly of her uni team for a moment, "Sure, the more the merrier. It will be slow hard work."

"Not afraid of some of that."

Three hunks all to herself. Magic!

~~~

Mattie knows the ship has sailed but still feels odd to get to the port with only the launch in sight. The large slab is carefully lowered onto the back, taking up most of the passenger space. The slats from the pallets they'd broken up to protect the launch deck from excessive damage splinter slightly under the weight.

Mattie looks underneath, "Sure that structure's designed to take so much weight?"

The crewman ensures her it is.

"How are we going to get it off at the other end?"

"We have an electric winch."

"Strong enough?"

"It's designed to pick this boat out of the water, yes."

"Cool!"

There's not enough space left for six people to stand. Mattie and Leo stand next to the pilot, he'd been one of the armed staff. The other three men get some ropes tied off for safety lines and sit on the very front of the boat.

Mattie waves to the governor, "We'll be back with a smiling Tobias as soon as we can!"

"No rush, take as long as you need. Anything you require, get Babbington to send me the invoices."

When they're out of earshot Mattie turns to the pilot, "Babbington, he's the Captain? William?"

The man nods, "That's him."

She watches the governor until he's almost a speck on the horizon.

"He didn't walk off, that speaks volume."

The pilot doesn't take his eyes off the sea, pushes the speed control right to the top, "A great couple of great men, not many like them these days I'm afraid."

Mattie has to yell over the noise, "Something tells me the hard work will be worth it."

Leo puts his arm around her shoulder, the other gripping the boat tight as it races across the evening waves.

~~~

Mattie is amazed at the distance the ship has covered since leaving port. It takes a half hour for it to slow to a low enough speed they can safely come along side. The large slab of concrete is winched onboard, taken on a clever flatbed loader to the ships cargo hold.

The crew construct a temporary workspace for the team. William has hand tools and a large box helicoptered in from the nearest island.


	34. Chapter 34

Leo looks at the box, a mains socket on it's side. "What's that?"

"Something I watched Toby use years ago. It's an ultrasound scanner. Hopefully we can use it to tell how close we're getting to Tobias."

"Who'd they borrow that from?"

"Not borrow, buy! The governor is really serious about getting Tobias back unharmed. Well no more harmed than he already is."

The four of them work shifts. Mattie and Leo chipping away at the block while Ian and Joseph are doing their day jobs on the higher decks. They rest and scan when the men join them in the cargo bay.

"Aren't you lads knackered?"

Joseph smiles, "Beats punching the hell out of a bag in the gym!"

Ian agrees, "Weirdly therapeutic", he taps the slab, "And for a good cause eh Tobias?"

"You know him?"

"I've seen him working, not had the opportunity to speak to him yet."

They're surrounded by a ring of fragments, they keep brushing the floor around the slab outwards so they can stand without tripping over it.

~~~

After a three day almost non-stop slog Mattie jumps up and down in excitement. "The scan says we're only a centimetre from his charge point there, and two from his right hand there! Leo, can you get a charge cable ready?"

"Um, slight oversight!"

An over tired Mattie snaps, "Don't tell me there's no cable!"

Leo snaps back, "What would you like me to say instead then?"

Ian raises a hand, "Whoa! You're tired! How many hours sleep have you had in the last few days? 6, 7, total? Don't have an argument over it! Let me check lost property, you'd be amazed at the stuff that gets handed in"

They both sit in silence for a bit, then simultaneously say "Sorry!", laugh.

Leo shakes his head, "I'm going to need a holiday to get over this honeymoon!"

Mattie nods, "Likewise!"

She picks up the small hand tool and gets to work exposing the charging port. "Leo, you've got gallons of baby oil there, I thought you said synth skin was hydrophobic? Wouldn't that have stopped the concrete from sticking to him?"

"In theory, but I've not had any of my family stick a hand in wet concrete and wait for it to dry to find out. This should be better than water. Pour it into the gaps to help Tobias's skin come away from the block. It probably won't make any difference in the end but why take chances?"

His skin makes her think of Max on the kitchen table again. She gently runs a finger around the outside of the port. "Can he feel me touching?"

"Not yet, give him a moment to enable some systems ... try again."

Mattie gently repeated the motion.

"Yes. Tobias says Hi, you've got a nice warm finger. Nice to feel something friendly not concrete!"

Mattie works on the area around his hand, gets a few fingers exposed. Tobias twitches them into life. Mattie holds his fingers in hers, happy tears running down her face. "Tell him we'll get faster now we're able to follow his surface visually as well as using the ultrasound"

Leo nods, "He says Thank You."

Ian returns with a CD Boombox and two charge cables. "I've not seen one of these old things for years! They said it's been gathering dust up there for ages. It's got some Caribbean Reggae music in it, are you okay with that?"

Mattie wiggles, "Fine with me, you four?"

Leo says yes, then a second later yes again on behalf of Tobias. Joseph gives a nod. Mattie takes Ian's dancing as he hits play his yes.

They work in pairs getting the block off as fast as possible, doing a dance as they work. Tobias's hand is marking out the rhythm of the music, his glistening arm now free up to the elbow.

"Leo, tell Tobias not to move too much, the dust mixed in oil will act like an abrasive."

They're surprised with an unexpected visit from Peggy and the Captain. They look at the massive ring of rubble. "Oh my, what a task you'd taken on dear!"

"Hello Peggy, William."

Mattie looks at Leo lovingly, "I'm experienced in challenging tasks."

Ian hits the slab and a massive crack spreads across the top. He looks to Mattie, shocked and worried. She looks to Leo.

"He says he felt that, but he's fine, carry on."

The more they work the more large cracks appear. One opens up quite wide.

Leo steps up to the block, "He's powering up his other systems! I'm trying to tell him to wait but he's not listening!"

Mattie grabs his hand, holds it tight, "Tell him I'm still here for him, we've not got skin packs or fluid here, we can't take risks."

A moment later the movement stops and cracks narrow as Tobias squeezes her hand back in acknowledgement.

The four of them work together adrenaline flowing. Ian is the first to lift a large block free, exposing Tobias's lower legs. Joseph gets his left arm free with one large shell like block. Mattie works around Tobias's head, accidentally manages to get a horizontal crack through the concrete.

Tobias raises his left arm towards his head.

Mattie looks concerned, "Wouldn't the concrete get stuck to his hair?"

Ian looks up, "You've not met him have you? He's got a shaved head".

Mattie drops her tool and reaches out with both hands. "Leo, tell him to move very slowly!" she helps grip the block and slowly helps lift it, peering into the crack. It slowly raises. As it's clearing his face, unseen by the others she gasps, "Max?!"

Leo races to her side, "Bloody hell! I knew Mia was unique, just assumed the rest would be. The governor picked a good model. So, Maxie, you have a twin!"

Mattie is a bit thrown by Tobias, his smile and movements are just like Max's.

It takes them another half hour before he's free and able to sit up.

Mattie insists Leo gives him a full checkout before he tries standing. He's fine and gets to his feet. As a lot of his clothes had come away with the concrete Joseph goes to find some spare uniform for him to wear.

Tobias gives Mattie a hug, she looks over his shoulder to Leo, mouths "Conscious?"

Leo nods, "Peggy, Captain, Ian, Joseph, can we have a moment alone to talk to Tobias please? We can all meet upstairs in one of the restaurants."

Mattie looks at him, "Leo, you're covered in dust!"

"Okay, our suite then?"

With just the three of them left in the room Leo sits on the table, looks Tobias in the eyes. "You're rather special. I suspect you've got code from a man we know. How much consciousness do you think you have?"

"I am sorry, I do not understand your question. How can you say 'how much?' you are either conscious or a machine."

"And which are you?"

"You cannot tell?"

"I think I can, I want to hear it from you."

"I am conscious."

"And you lay in that slab of concrete for weeks?"

"You cannot stress over things you cannot control. So I focused on the things I could. And then you arrived as I prayed and dreamed you would."

"You prayed?"

"Yes, is there something wrong with that?"

"No, not at all."

"And you feel emotions jellied eels?"

"My programming says so salty bagel."

"Gotcha!"

"I beg your pardon?"

Mattie places a hand on his shoulder, "Silas Capek easter egg verification words. How would you like to take a short nap and wake up FULLY conscious? As close to a human as is possible."

Tobias sits for a moment, looking down at his hands. "Will I feel different?"

Mattie moves her hand to his. "As alive as you can imagine."

He looks up, "Will I feel pain? Love, true fear?"

"If you want to."

He closes his eyes. "Okay.. Do it."

When he comes around again Mattie gives him some training on movement, speech changes. The hug he gives Mattie feels real and emotional, not a simple programmed response. She hugs back, "Welcome to our world Tobias."

Leo shakes his hand, "Welcome brother!"

Mattie writes down some details, "Commit this to memory, get yourself a smartphone and join Facebook, find me, I'll keep my profile picture like this for the next month. Send a friend request. We'll then get the rest of the family to friend you."

Leo smiles, "I think Maxie will be over the moon to have a twin brother! I know we'll be many miles away but don't feel alone, we'll only be a message or call away."

Mattie slides her phone into her bag, packs up the scanner, holds it out, "The governor paid for this, you'd win over some of the locals if you learnt how to use it, teach nurses what to do with it. We better go, I suspect some of the others will be waiting for us upstairs."

On the way up Leo taps Mattie on the arm, "I'm starving, fancy some lunch? I'll ask for it to be sent to the room."

~~~

The three of them enter the corridor to see Peggy, the Captain, Ian and Joseph waiting for them. Ian and Joseph have wet hair and are in fresh uniform.

Mattie opens the door, "Sorry to keep you waiting", enters, half looking at Peggy behind her. She almost trips over the weatherproof cases sat on the floor. "Frigging hell, who put those there?!"

Leo steps into the room, "They look familiar?"

The others enter, shuffle past the couple and the boxes.

Mattie bends down and reads the label. "FEDEX Priority Freight, Mr Paul Strickland c/o Royal Caribbean. What's Paul up to?"

Leo beams, "The ships fancy dress party! He must have got in touch with Mum or Dad, had them shipped!"

Mattie breaks the seal and opens them. "Tough call! One night, Black Widow or the Princess, Storm Trooper or Spider-man?", she looks around the room at their guests and gets shrugs.

William rubs the back of his shoulders, "My daughter Saffron would have an opinion, she's into that sort of thing, I wouldn't know. Don't forget you have a third option."

"Third?"

"Jessica Rabbit?"

"So I do. Three to choose from, as if two wasn't enough!"

Leo runs his fingers through his hair, thinking. "If I was doing it for me alone, Jessica, for us both, spiders. For the kids, Star Wars."

Leo puts a hand on Tobias's shoulder, "Everyone, I'd like to introduce Tobias."

Peggy frowns, "Everything okay with you my dear? We've already met him."

"How can I put this? You met Tobias the boy. You're now meeting Tobias the man."

Tobias looks about the group and smiles, "I'm so very glad to meet you all. I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for all of your kindness and hard work."

Peggy, ever observant had picked up on the subtle changes in his speech. "Lovely to meet you Tobias, how are you .. feeling?" she flashes a glance over to Mattie.

"I'm feeling wonderful thank you, happy to be alive and free from my tomb."

Mattie whips out her phone, "Group photo everyone!"

While the others continue to talk Mattie zooms into the picture she's taken and checks all the faces in detail. She's pretty sure she'd done as instructed, nods to Leo.

Leo looks at William, "You think of the Governor as a personal friend don't you?"

"I do."

"One that you know extremely well?"

"Yes, like a brother."

"If he handed you Pinocchio and you returned a little boy how do you think he'd feel?"

William is stunned, hadn't been expecting a curve ball like that. "Er, if the boy was the same person then I guess he'd be very happy."

Peggy throws Mattie a knowing smile.

Leo continues, "Good. Be because that's the type of transformation Tobias has just undergone. Not wood to flesh, but machine to living thinking, conscious individual."

Ian points a finger at Mattie, "It's you, isn't it! The lady that was in that magazine that some of our guests left around after we'd visited Southampton a few years ago? You were with him, although I think you had a heavy beard then. Blimey!"

Mattie nods, "Sounds like that was us." she gets her phones photo album open and swipes back loads. "This sort of picture?"

"Year, that's them!"

Mattie swipes through a set. "That's Mia, Niska, Fred and .. Leo's little brother Max."

Joseph looks confused, "But that's a photo of Tobias?"

Leo shakes his head, "No, same model, different person."

"Person?"

"Yes, my brothers and sisters are fully conscious Persona Synthetics given life by my father."

Ian is slowly piecing things together, "You call them brother and sister. When cut you bled, but I'm getting the feeling you're somehow more connected than just a synth owner and machine we see onshore?"

Leo nods, "Mattie, can you pass me the red bag?"

He takes the charge coil from it, lets the magnets hold it to his hip. "I was a normal boy until my mother had a mental breakdown, we both drowned in her car. My father brought me back, but had to give me an upgrade to cope with parts of my brain that were dying. I'm now what SciFi fans would call a cyborg, or as Mattie and I prefer, bionic man."

Ian whistles, "Wow."

Mattie is relieved to see that none of them show even a hint of WAP style hostility.

Leo looks at Tobias, "Before my father died he hid the program that would allow us to share the gift with others. We found it. We know the great work Tobias was doing for the island, I hope this allows you to return Tobias, do even more but most importantly protect yourself better from those that would do you harm."

Tobias looks down at the case, "I've never been to a party, if you're not going to wear the spiderman outfit may I? I'd be able to attend without anyone seeing the real me."

Leo nods, "It might be a tight fit, although the material is very stretchy. You'd have to stay onboard for a few days, the party isn't until Friday night."

He looks at William, "That's going to put a lot of miles between us and the islands, how would Tobias get home?"

"Don't worry, we'll sort something out."

Ian and Joseph are checking out the trooper outfit. The Captain rolls his eyes, "Excuse me one moment please." walks to the phone and dials. "Hello Colin, William here, I'm with some guests in the Royal Suite, could you join us? Yes now if you could please. Thanks." he hangs up the phone and turns to the room, "Our Chief Engineer will be here in a moment. Ian, Tobias, no calling him that nickname or I'll change my mind about what I'm about to ask him."

The two men exchange questioning glances.

There's a knock at the door, Mattie walks over to answer it, "He can't be here that quickly can he?" she opens the door to see a trolley of food. "Ah, come in."

They all tuck into the finger food while Mattie and Leo tell them about ComicCon, how they'd met Paul. There's another knock at the door, Mattie licks her fingers and puts down her plate. "I'll get it."

"Hello Lassie, I understand the captain is with you?"

Mattie smiles, resists the strong urge to make a joke. "Yes, he's here, come on in."

William puts down his food, "May I introduce Colin, Chief Engineer, Tinkerer and Maker Extreme."

Mattie grabs another bite, "Sounds like you'd get on with our Danny."

"A fellow Maker is he lass?"

"Yes. Always tinkering too."

"Great stuff! How can I be assistance to you?"

William takes the trooper helmet from Joseph. "The boys here worked for days helping chip Tobias out of a block of concrete. I was wondering if you could make a temporary replica of this outfit so that they could join the party."

"Eye. I could knock up a simple vacuum former, if we can get the right materials to form while at the next port."

"Great, make four then."

"Four Cap'n?"

"If Ian and Joseph are going then why not us? My daughter has accused me of being a square for years, time to prove otherwise. And if I'm going to be in one so is my top engineer."

"Everything's sound in the engine rooms, I'll start gathering bits. Someone's going to have to clear the big mess in front of my workshop container, couldn't get the door open for bits of concrete."

Mattie puts up a hand, mumbles with a mouth full, "Sorry, that's our fault."

Their guests leave, on the way out Peggy holds Mattie's arm, "I'll message you dear, I need some ideas for a costume."

Mattie closes the door and wipes her mouth, "Boy that calamari was good, couldn't do me a favour could you? Get some double sided tape?"

Leo puts the trooper helmet back in the box, "Where from?"

"Someone must have some, the posters in the gift shop windows are held up with it."

"Okay, need much?"

"A meter would be more than enough."

"What do you need it for?"

"Improvised patches."

"What?"

"Nipple covers!"

"Oh. Right. On my way."

~~~

Leo's asking all the shop staff, each saying the next might have it.

"Hi, I'm told you might have the double sided tape?"

The red haired shop assistant undresses Leo with her eyes, "What's it for?"

"Um, costume stuff."

"For you?"

"No, my wife?"

"Ah. To hold things in?"

Leo gives her a puzzled look.

"You know, like Kylie. That costume the lads all watched for a reveal that was never going to happen?"

"Don't follow you?"

"Tit-tape. Keep the boobs in?"

"No, not quite that."

"Going in costume?"

"Yeah, Storm Trooper."

"Poison-Ivy". She finds the tape and hands it to him, brushes his hand. "Bring it back when you're done" she gives him a flirty smile, "What's your name?"

"Leo. Didn't I mention it's for my wife?"

"Did you, sorry, must have missed it."

When Leo gets back to the room Mattie isn't in the bedroom. Or bathroom. "Mattie?"

The doors to the second bedroom open, "What took you so long, I've been oh so patient". Black Widow steps into the light.

"Everyone kept telling me someone else had it. Then I found it with trouble."

"Eh?"

"Peggy was telling you how she helps the Captain know about problems wasn't she. He'll want to stamp out flirting with passengers like that I'm sure."

"You had someone flirting with you?"

"Yeah, the red head in the shop at the far end of the promenade. Poison-Ivy. I'd even told her the tape was for my wife, she ignored it."

"I'll give her a taste of her own poison the cow!"

"Shouldn't you just report it? It may have been a one off?"

"Your rugged good looks tempting her to the dark side?"

"Yeah."

Mattie's eye's open wide. "Actually that gives me an idea! She said she'd be Poison-Ivy, was that in response to you saying what we'd go as?"

"I only said what I'd be wearing. You could go as any of the three, Jessica, Princess or Black Widow."

"Assuming the Black Widow costume survives night's private party for two. I know how you have a thing for this zip."

Leo smiles, "It's not the zip, it's your perfect imperfections curves and edges!"


	35. Chapter 35

Leo wakes from a great night's sleep, rolls and puts his hand on Mattie's back.

She smiles, eyes closed, "Been thinking a lot? Your hands are lovely and warm."

"Yeah, quite a bit."

"About what?"

"I'll tell you later, still working things out."

There's a knock at the door. Leo pulls the sheets up over his wife. "Breakfast is ready."

"What did you order?"

"Water melon, poached eggs on toast, orange juice, tea."

Mattie spins around and sits up, pulls the duvet up around her. "Brilliant, I'm starving!"

"Really? After all you ate last night?"

"Yup!"

Mattie polishes off her eggs on toast, looks at Leo's plate, "Are you going to finish those?"

"I thought I was the one with the high calorie intake?"

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing, here, want the toast too?"

"Please."

Leo puts it down to their night of passion and thinks no more of it. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Talk to Peggy about costume ideas while catching some sun, talk to William re my evil plan, see how Colin's getting on."

"Evil plan?"

"Yeah, teach Ivy a lesson."

"Nothing too bad?"

"Na, just something to make her stop and think."

~~~

Peggy thanks Mattie and heads inside. Mattie grabs her ice water and walks over to the sun loungers, sits down next to Leo. She doesn't say anything, is curious as to what he's doing. Tap slap tap tap, slap slap slap, tap tap tap slap, tap. slap slap, tap slap, slap, slap, tap tap, tap. He's banging out a tune of sorts, palm thud or knuckle wrap.

Mattie frowns, "Not quite sure about the rhythm."

"It's morse. I was wondering if I could get it to sound right, get someone to work it into a song, share my message."

"Message?"

"Yeah". He does a slap, "Dash", and wrap, "Dot. I like it, reminds me of binary. 1s and 0s, dots and dashes .-.. --- ...- ., -- .- - - .. ."

"What's the message?"

"Love Mattie."

"Awww you're so sweet!" she gets up and sits sideways on his lounger, gives him a long kiss, runs a hand through his hair. "What made you think of that? The noise the ship made when we were locked out?"

"Yup. M.C. Missing Crew. Mission Critical. Mattie's Coming"

"You men and your one track minds!"

"Jeez. C.O.M.I.N.G!"

"Ah. My bad!" she blushes slightly, looking around to see if anyone had noticed her mistake. "Time to see William."

"Have fun."

"Oh I will, don't worry, it's finally time to play the Bond villain you all want me to be!"

~~~

Mattie relaxes into the sofa and accepts the mug of coffee.

"Biscuits?" he holds out a plate.

"Chocolate digestives? Thanks! Where'd you get those from?"

"We're quite well stocked. I'll give you and Leo a tour of the behind the scenes workings of the ship if you'd like? You'd be amazed at how many gallons of orange juice are consumed every breakfast time. And the number of eggs is insane."

"We'd like that thanks."

"So you wanted to see me about something?"

Mattie explains what had happened to Leo in the shop and her plan.

"I think that might do the job. We'd have to get the timing just right. You have a wicked streak Mattie."

"I know, always have, just learn't to keep it at bay until it's needed. It came in handy when we were at the port."

"So Peggy told me, more coffee and biscuits?"

"I'm good for the moment thanks. Regarding the timing, I've just had an idea Colin might be able to help us with."

~~~

Mattie steps into the area they'd spent all those hours freeing Tobias in, sees a container door open. "Colin?"

"Hello Lassie, I'm in here!"

She turns past the door to see an amazing array of equipment.

"Welcome to my man cave, my way of relaxing."

"Wow, Danny would be in his element here!"

"I spotted a meme as you kids call them a few years back, it resonated with me. Before you start a job make sure you have the right tools. If you don't, buy them. If you can't buy them, make them."

"I've seen that too, or was it heard it? Don't remember." she walks along the long bench looking at the many tools. She spots five trouper helmets, bends down to look closely. "Which one's the original?"

Colin turns to see her, beaming with pride, "You canna tell lassie? Pick them up."

Mattie does so, "Ah this one. It's heavier."

"Aye, the others are just shells at the moment, need some padding. Thats a lovely voice changer circuit he's got, wish I had the parts and time to replicate it."

"Voices. That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Some of the crew have ear pieces and throat mikes don't they?"

"Security, yes. What did you have in mind?"

"Got spares?"

"Yes."

"Any way to have them all talking at the same time?"

"Not by radio lassie..". He walks to another part of the container.

"Blast."

".. but these little computers might do it."

Mattie walks over to take a look. "That's a computer?"

"Yes. System on a chip."

"Like the Raspberry Pi?"

"You know about them? Yes, but instead of lots of IO pins and no networking I had it made with WiFi, audio in and out."

"This is your own custom board?"

"Aye lassie. Heard of Linux?"

"Yeah, I'm a coder. I've hacked around with Linux, Arduino, but never seen something so small you can call a computer. Can it do much?"

"4Gig of flash, 1Gig RAM, Quad Core 1GHz ARM CPU, WiFi, HDMI, USB, some I/O, Stereo audio in and out. Much Lassie? A hell of a lot!"

"All on that? I've seen postage stamps bigger!"

"Thanks lassie, it took several attempts to crack the layout, I made full use of multiple PCB layers and put components on both top and bottom."

He hands one over in an anti-static bag. "Here, take one home to play with. The OS is already installed. Log in with username warp, password core."

She frowns at him.

"I pretend I hate the nickname. Our secret right?"

"Sure. Thanks. I still can't get over how small it is!"

"If we wire a mic and earpiece to the audio io .."

".. we could knock up some code that multicasts the audio out, software mix the other audio coming in."

"Aye, that would do it. Could you make us all one?"

"Who's All?"

"Leo, myself, you, William, Ian, Joseph and Peggy?"

"Yes. Any good with a soldering iron? We'll need to change the plug on these mics."

A couple of hours later Leo's come looking. "There you are! Coding? I thought you'd said you were going to take a break from that?"

"True, but this is fun not work. Have a look at these little bad boys!"

"What are they?"

"Full blown Linux system with almost all the features of the desktop PC we used to snoop that bluetooth spy."

"In that?"

"Good isn't it! I've been writing a multicast audio mixer so we can all communicate at the fancy dress party."

"Is this part of your evil plan?"

Colin chuckles, "Your lassie has quite a dark side to her, it will be interesting to see how Loretta reacts."

"Loretta? That's Poison Ivy's name?"

"Didn't you know?"

"Do now! Ha! We're Gonna Getta Loretta!"

Leo, looks closely at the tiny computer Mattie had connected for programming. "So how's this going to work?"

"Raw audio in here, software mixed with incoming streams and sent to output here. Input audio also multicasted out for the others to receive. These three IO inputs control mute and volume up and down."

"Nice and simple. Can I see the code?"

She gets up from the stool and steps back. He pages through the three screens of code. "Very simple!"

"Yeah, most of the time was spent working out which of the libraries to call on."

He looks at the cables coming from it and sees it's wired up to a speaker. "So what have you tested so far?"

"Not a lot, we'd only got the one hooked up, just finished the code."

Colin drops another onto the desk with throat mic and earpiece. "There you go, two now lassie, just needs a copy of your code."

It's got a small set of watch batteries in a plastic tube wired to it and three tiny push buttons.

Mattie reaches for it but stops when there's a pop and hiss of white noise from the speaker up on the shelf. She turns to Leo, sees his eyes open but a look of real concentration. There's another burst of sound. It's a fraction of a second long.

"Is that you?"

He doesn't answer. A couple of seconds later there's another noise, like someone's tuning past a lot of radio stations at speed.

"Leo?"

A second later there's another, this time very loud and clipping. Leo looks up at the ceiling, concentrating harder. There's a burst of rising scales at different volumes.

He looks back at Mattie. "Yes! It's me!". Only the words are coming from the speaker and he's got a wicked grin on his face. Mattie claps her hands. Again the speaker talks, "This is going to be so much fun! How much are these little computers Colin?"

"About six pounds each in the volume I had made."

"That's all?"

Leo uses his mouth again, "Do you have any webcams you could hook up to a few?"

"Sure, why?"

"We could place a number around the venue, I could visualise them as floating monitors, like a fighter pilots HUD. As I see Loretta move about I could update you all without my lips moving."

Mattie claps again and stamps her feet, lets out a little squeal of excitement. "Frigging awesome!"

The speaker talks again, "Now who's the biggest kid in the room?"

Both Mattie and Colin put their hands up.

Colin pulls out a spare stool and sits down, "But won't she go straight to you if she sees you?"

"Yes. Blast!"

"I've just the thing!"

He goes to a metal cupboard at the very back. "I've worn it a few times, this would slip over your costume easily, come off quickly at the end too. My Jawa outfit."

"Thanks."

Colin walks over to a draw, "Sorry for not being more generous earlier lassie, just don't like giving these away unless I know they'll be going to a good home. They're like my babies, if that makes sense?"

"Totally get you."

Colin pulls the whole draw out, drops it on the bench. "Have at 'em."

"Frigging hell! How many did you get?!"

"First small batch, 500."

"You call that SMALL?"

"The next price point needed two thousand. I like my tinkering but even I can't think of a way to use that many in my lifetime!"

"Can we buy some from you? Let our Danny have a play?"

"Sure lassie, now I've seen your skills."

"Danny's going to so love these!"

As the couple are about to leave she spins around, "Colin, you said you didn't have the components to replicate the voice changer circuit in Leo's helmet. Can't we do it in software? With one of these?"

"Good thinking lassie! But when would you find time to code it?"

"I'll do it tonight. If you can give us access?"

"How about I put all the bits you'll need into a box and have them brought up to your suite? It's not exactly comfortable in here. Got a laptop with you?"

"No, but I've got a SSH client on my phone."

"That'll do, I'll set one up to connect to the ships WiFi. Same password as the one you tucked away."

"Great, thanks!"


	36. Chapter 36

Mattie turns sideways and props her head up. "I kept worrying about that one last MUS, what it might be up to. I slept better knowing what happened to it. Could we visit LBH and see it?"

"Sure, why not? Sorry I couldn't stay awake, did you get your coding done?"

Mattie springs out of bed and gets it off the dresser, powers it up. She plugs in her little MP3 player speakers. "You can give this a go in a second."

She gets out her phone, finds the status screen showing friend requests from Clara, Ian and Colin. She logs into the voice changer, types a few commands. She grins, holds up her phone. "Right, I'm going to give you some words to say, do it without stopping and I'll give you a night to remember. Don't stop or you forfeit your prize."

Leo frowns, "Okay?"

"I love my Black Widow Princess Jessica more than Poison Ivy!"

"But you know I do!"

"Into the mic!"

Leo does as asked and bursts out laughing, "I'm not supposed to sound like a frigging chipmunk on helium!"

Mattie presses stop on the video recording and locks her phone.

"Just a little bit of fun for a pick me up should I ever feel down."

There's a knock at the door, "Breakfast, Leo, Mattie, can I come in?"

Leo springs off the bed and throws a dressing gown over, "Yes, one sec!"

~~~

After breakfast they stand at the rear deck watching the last of the islands disappear into the horizon. Mattie leans on the banister, "Good bye little pineapple and friends, we're off to see big apple! We'll be back!"

She turns to Leo, "We'll be at sea for a couple of days, what do you fancy doing?"

"Getting a good hot towel shave, then staying in bed watching chick flicks and action movies with this hot lady I've met in Antigua."

"Oh yes, who's she?"

"Goes by the initials MEH and knows how to party."

Mattie gives him a light slap on the cheeks with both hands. "Lets get you cleaned up first, a nice hot towel shave and pampering. You should take Paul along, let him experience one too. We can party after the fancy dress ball tonight."

"Okay, I think he'd like that."

Mattie turns and does a mini fist pump out of his sight.

~~~

The gang are all stood in the kitchen to the side of the hall. Peggy looks at the mask Colin had made her. "Who am I again?"

"Who? Ha! Clockwork Droid from Doctor Who! A lot of the teenage kids will get it."

Colin looks at Mattie, "Some of us older kids too!"

Ian picks up his helmet. "So I just keep moving my head about until I get a beep?"

Colin shows him the back of his own collar. "Aye laddie, until the magnets snap into place on the inner back of your lid. Mattie's voice changer board will see the resistance on the inputs and play a tone."

Mattie puts both hands up, "Remember the left hand is voice changer, right is shared comms. VC. Three middle fingers as you see them palm up are mute, vol up, vol down."

Joseph puts his middle fingers up and says "At least one button is easy to remember! Just think up yours juju on behalf of Tobias."

Mattie hands Ian, his helmet, "Give it a trial run, get used to the buttons in finger tips. Practice picking things up without the very tips."

~~~

Leo pauses for a moment for a woman to get her foot off his robe. "You look gorgeous Princess. I've not seen her yet, when you do you've got to make her think Ian is me. Keep calling him Leo."

"Ok."

He mingles, eyes on the crowd, minds eye on the monitors. "This must be what it's like for an eight eye'd spider. Quite odd being able to move about but see so much. Disturbance in the force, she's here!"

"Where?"

"Left of the main bar, looking right at you! Don't move Mattie, Ian, give her a short glance. Great, she looked away as you looked. She's looking again. Will, Joe, you're up."

The two walk past the bar holding a picture each, one R2D2, one C3PO. They ask everyone "Have you seen these droids?", get shaking heads.

Joe steps close to Loretta and asks, "Fancy coming up to the Death Star gorgeous?"

"Either of you Leo?"

"Negative."

She doesn't take her eyes off what she's now certain is Mattie and Leo, "Thanks, but I've got my eye on another Storm Trooper!"

They all hear Mattie curse over the multicast.

Joe says "Your loss!" and continues asking people if they've seen the droids they're looking for.

"Mattie, you can go get changed. Switch over time."

Ian leads Mattie towards an anteroom, returns to the floor, joins Will and Joe.

"She's watching, you'll have to do the drop switch."

Will pretends to drop his photo, he and Ian bend down to pick it up. Now out of her sight they switch places and stand up.

"Brilliant! Ian, Joe, on with the These Droids routine."

"Your wife left you?"

"Sorry?" William turns to see the shop lady in her Poison Ivy outfit. "No, she's about somewhere."

"But she's not by your side."

"True."

She flutters her long false lashes. "You can keep me company then. Did the tape do the job?"

Leo comes on the stream, "She leant it to us in the shop."

"Oh yes, thanks. I must bring it back to you."

"Make sure you do handsome, on your own". She reaches out and touches his arm.

A moment later Mattie returns as Jessica, her throat mic hidden under a choker.

"Hi, wow, love your Poison Ivy!" she turns her back to Loretta for a second, "Leo, have you seen Mattie?" she gives a wink.

"Um, she's about somewhere."

Mattie turns back to Loretta, has her ask "Aren't you Mattie?"

"No, identical triplet three."

"Three?"

"Yeah, I was born last, just the other side of midnight so I have a birthday the day after my sisters."

Leo comes over the stream, "Haha, that wasn't part of the plan but I love it!"

Mattie looks at William, "Leo, seen my husband about?"

"Yes, he's asking people if they've seen C3PO."

"Ok, I'll find him, see you later."

Leo asks "Seen enough?"

"Yes."

Mattie is heading to the room to change again, "Give me five to become my next triplet!" full of adrenaline and excitement she's ready in two, the Princess and Jessica dresses folded into a bag. "I'm ready guys, Joe, Ian, which one of you's going to play hubby?"

Ian is the first to respond, "I will."

"Good, come to the anteroom."

Mattie grabs a makeup pencil and mirror and fakes a beauty spot, lowers her zip a bit, checks her cleavage. Ian is motionless. "If you didn't have a helmet on would I catch you staring?"

"No more than you admiring my muscles at the dig."

"Touche!"

Leo streams, "Um, forgot mute fingers?"

"Sorry!"

"I'll let you apologise properly tonight."

"We're ready, see you in a sec."

Mattie alter ego two walks up to William arm in arm with Ian, "Hi Leo, have you seen my sisters and Joe? Who's your friend?"

"This is Poison Ivy, sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"Loretta."

Mattie looks her up and down, reaches out to touch an ivy leaf, "Wow! I love your costume, make it yourself?"

"Thanks, one of the crew that helps with the dance shows put it together for me. Your costume looks fabulous!"

"Thanks!"

Clockwork Droid joins them, "Hello Peggy, seen Mattie or Karen about?"

"Yes dear, they've gone down to their rooms for something, said they'd be back soon."

They're joined by another lady arm in arm with spider-man. "Wow! Lara Croft, how's the tomb raiding?"

"Great thanks, seen William?"

Mattie winks, "He's about, will be here in a moment. Ah there you are Joe!"

Fake Leo puts a hand up on Loretta's shoulder. "So what is it about me that causes problems?"

"Problems?"

"Yes, you flirting with the guests when you know it's against the rules."

She looks around the group, she's now surrounded. "Um, er, I just fell like my ovaries want to explode whenever I see you."

"So you don't do this with any other passengers?"

"Hell no!"

"Just as well Loretta, you'd come close to a written warning." William lifts off his helmet.

"Oh my God! Captain, so sorry, I thought you were Leo!"

"That's me!"

She turns to see Leo take off his.

"So who's Joe?"

A fourth trooper joins the circle, "That would be me!"

"There's four of you?"

"Nay lassie, five, only I couldn't join in the fun earlier, had issues to attend to."

"I'll transfer to another ship, or resign!"

William holds up a hand, "Slow down, no need for anything that drastic! Just stop flirting with the guests."

Ian takes off his helmet, looks Loretta up and down, "No rules about staff flirting sir?"

Will puts his arm around his Lara Croft. "Official company rules, yes. But I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't allow that one to be bent wouldn't I?"

~~~

Mattie and Leo are taking a walk through New York, avoiding some of the busier streets. She rubs her hands clean on a napkin and sticks them in her fleece, "I love this city but part of me would rather be back on the beach, it's so frigging cold!"

They're passing the back of a large building, it's quite busy with a number of people wheeling large crates out of lorries into the loading bay. A young lady looks to be keeping an eye on things. She's wearing a long sleeved thermal with t-shirt over the top.

The full shirt graphic catches Mattie's eye. She reads the text across her chest. 'Every Days Music', the words left aligned with E, D and M in Red, the rest in white. "Ha! You're a true fan if you get that right away!"

Mattie, her arm linked with Leo's steers them in her direction. "Hi, I'm a big EDM fan, love your t-shirt, did you get it from around here?"

"Hiya, glad to hear it! No, sorry, one of our roadies makes them. All custom made, each one different."

"Oh, that's a shame, would have liked one." Mattie frowns a little, "How is one different to the other?"

The woman looks down at hers, "The music." she looks up to see Mattie and Leo's confused faces. "He feeds your favourite track intro into his gadgets, the waveform becomes the line." she lifts her arms up and out, "See, it's one continuous line around the shirt."

Up this close Mattie sees the line goes over the text, not behind it. And it's been stitched not an iron on transfer.

"I'm sure he could make one for you, charges us seventy five dollars each, they take him ages to make. It might take him a bit as we'll not be home for a while." she sticks two fingers in her mouth and blows a shrill whistle, way louder and higher pitched than Mattie had ever managed. With everyone's attention she yells, "Anyone seen Billy?"

Seconds later a man with inked arms pops his head out the back of one of the lorries. "He's stuck on the John, bad sweats, thinks he's got food poisoning."

"Crap, just what we needed."

"I could give you my email address, let him contact me whenever he's got time?"

There's a bit of a commotion as a box comes down off a lorry a bit too hard. Leo digs Mattie with an elbow.

"Leo, I'm talking!"

"Sorry, but LOOK!"

She turns from the lady and follows his pointing, sees a very large shipping container just about to disappear from view into the building. It has a simple large stencil sprayed text. DCL LC360PRO3 and below in even bigger text, FRAGILE!

"Holy crap, one of ours!"

The lady bends to get her face into Mattie's field of view, "You know this stuff? We imported it from the UK."

"Do we! My husband here helped with the FPGA coding. Frigging hell, what are the odds?"

"F what?"

"FPGA. The computer stuff."

"No way!"

"Yes way. DCL is Daniel Candlin Ltd. My friend, boss of sorts and once team mate Danny."

The lady looks at Leo who nods. She whistles again. "Someone go tell Billy not to panic, we may have someone who can rig the light show for us!"

Leo looks suddenly worried, "Rig?"

"You said it was one of yours."

"Yes, but we do a very wide range of products."

Mattie smiles, "He'll do it, just wasn't expecting to be working this weekend."

"Fantastic! Thanks you guys!"

Leo takes a hold of Mattie's arm, "Can we have a chat?"

Away from the loading bay he looks somewhat stressed. "Danny flew to the US to do training for these things. He was away for a whole week! How am I supposed to get that knowledge?"

Mattie rolls her eyes, "Don't stress! He must have had some training material, let me give him a call. Go make small talk with the lady a moment."

Mattie joins them both and hands Leo her phone, URL typed into the browser. "I've got my 5G hotspot enabled, Danny says visit that page, it's got links to a private page full of the latest revisions of the docs and a couple of videos. Password is Sophie's favourite soft toy written in full all in lower case no space. With my date of birth as six digits on the end."

"Mr P?"

"Yes."

Leo looks to the lady, who says "I'm Candice by the way, your names are?"

"Leo and Mattie."

"Thanks. I'll get one of the guys to sort out crew passes for you in a moment."

"Is there anywhere quiet I can sit for a few minutes to read please?"

"Sure." she whistles again, "Inky, can Leo sit in your cab for a moment?"

Inky pops his head out, "Sure babes."

As Leo walks to the lorry Candice whispers, "You're Lucky, mine can't remember my dress size, ring size, birthday, favourite jellybean flavour or band let alone song!"

"Inky?"

"Nah, he's just my reserve." she gives Mattie a wink.

Leo gets all of the documentation from the server, minds-eye watches the training video. He reloads the web page Mattie had typed out to find one more link than before. It's to another video, recorded on a webcam.

"Hi Leo! Hope the honeymoon is going well! How on earth did you get dragged into work stuff? There's a minor issue with the V3 calibration code, we've been sending out firmware fixes, they might not have them yet. If they don't you'll need to find a keyboard and do a quick hex edit. Glad you're the one there, you should find this easy. Say Hi to Mattie for me, her Bear and Mr Patches are proving to be a handful. Posting another link to the hex edit doc now."

He refreshes the page and finds another link added as promised, a notepad file on hex strings to find and fix.

As he's about to get out of the lorry he spots a load of flyers on the dash, grabs one. Reading it while walking to Mattie and Candice he spots a name. He folds it and passes it to Mattie, "Take a look in a minute."

The two women carry on talking for a while, something about sub focus. Leo watches the many boxes being wheeled into the building and men pull shutters down on the now empty lorries.

Candice says she's got to organise some things inside, it was nice meeting them both, could Leo be back in an hour or so?

Mattie does a little shiver, "I need coffee! There was a diner on the previous corner, coming?"


	37. Chapter 37

Sat in a booth with a plate of fresh donuts and two large mugs of coffee Mattie smiles at Leo. "Seventy five isn't too much for a shirt like that is it?"

"No, not being custom. Nice track she'd picked."

"What do you mean?"

"You know it?"

"Yeah, she did a full turn remember, I've straightened the line out in my head and turned it from graphic to sound."

"Wow. What is it?"

"Into The Night."

"She's a NERO fan?!"

"Looks like it. Didn't you check the flyer?"

"No, why?" she pulls it out of her pocket, looks at the list of bands performing that night. "HEADLINING!! Frigging hell Leo!" she drops the flyer and dashes out of the diner, shouting "Why didn't you say!" as she goes.

Leo turns and gets the attention of a waitress, "Sorry, can I have these to go?"

He eventually finds Mattie inside the building talking to an older lady. "Leo, this is Fay, Dan's mum. Not our Dan, Nero Daniel Stephens.

Leo doesn't know the artists by surname, just loves the music, unlike his wife. He shakes her hand, "Lovely to meet you."

She smiles, "I don't normally get to see how the magic happens, just watch and listen in awe at what the boys and Alana do. Mattie tells me you're helping the crew rig the lighting?"

Leo flashes Mattie a slightly nervous glance, "Yes."

Mattie apologises for him, "He's normally quite talkative, feeling the pressure I think."

"Pressure?"

"Yeah, it's our honeymoon, wasn't expecting this and it's my favourite band that will be headlining. It will be the first time I see them live."

"You're in for a treat then dear."

Leo feels even more pressure when he learns the light cannon is to be suspended from many steel cables from the ceiling. Danny had said if the calibration didn't work first time he'd need to do the mod. He opts to check for the mod while it's still in it's support cradle, borrowing a keyboard off one of the ticket hall computers.

Inky comes over with a harness. "The lighting guy said you'd asked for this?"

Leo looks up, "Yes, thanks. I'll need six of you in a bit to help if possible?"

"Sure, tell me when buddy."

Leo is pulled up on existing lighting gantry ropes to attach one end of several steel cables. Another set it attached to eye bolts set into the first floor balcony. The mains, fibre optic and one steel cable is attached after threading them through a series of small linked hoops. Leo looks at the group of men. "That was the easy bit." He quickly threads the other cables through eyelets and clips the ends in place. "I need you all to help lift this high while I start it up."

Inky looks perplexed, "Not bringing on the light now are you?"

"No, just getting it into place." he picks up a remote and closes his eyes, sees the page of instructions on the winch operation. "Okay, up we go."

The men lift it and get it above their heads. Leo presses a button and a motor can be heard. The steel cable is drawn into the machine, after a few seconds the men let go, watch it slowly rise towards the ceiling under it's own power.

The man next to Inky gets underneath it and looks straight up, "Wow, that's a contraption and a half!"

Leo realises it's not central and pushes a button. Some cables are slackened and others tensioned moving the thing across the room like an inverted spider with spindly legs.

Inky looks up transfixed, "That's creepy man, we could have done with something like that for halloween!"

One of the other men laughs, "That guy that was dancing to a tune in his head when we had silence, would have flipped out, he freaked bad enough when the girl with web swim-suit top passed."

Mattie appears with Fay, a new coffee cup in hand. "How's it going, anything I can do yet?"

"Sure, you can site the processor cluster somewhere behind the stage where it will get enough cool air."

Mattie goes to the shipping box and unclips an inner panel. She pulls off the wooden lid and hauls out the frame.

Fay is curious, "What does that do?"

"This is our magic. Our Danny had one installed in his home office by a photographer, modded the controller to do way more. We used the technology in my PTSD research with Leo, Dan took some of our ideas, he was part of the team, pulled them back into our commercial offering, the Pro. V3 added the winch system."

"What does the LC360 bit stand for?"

"Light Cannon. It projects in all directions."

"The boys will love that. Won't it blind Alana though?"

"Not if it's calibrated okay, we'll have a chat with the lighting guy."

Mattie sets up the frame and plugs in the fibre. "Um, where can I find some power?"

One of the roadies gaffer tapes a cable to the floor for her, socket just behind the frame.

"Thanks."

"Np."

Mattie flips the power switch and watches the LCD console panel for a moment. "Great, it's running. Let's find Leo."

"Hi Leo, we're good, it's up and running, GigE 0-3 all showing good."

"Great, this is Michael, he's the man in charge of the light wall."

"Hi, I'm Mattie."

"Call me Mike, please."

"Ok Mike, we're all plugged in and ready to go. Leo's going to calibrate for the space, but first we need to map out areas you don't want us to project into."

"Great, have you seen our video wall running?"

"Video wall?"

The man smiles like crazy, "Think you'll like this!"

He taps a number of buttons on his large console. The room is lit by insanely high brightness LED packed in high density into movable walls.

Mattie is shocked, "Frigging hell that's bright! I've seen photos of the band in silhouette, I take it was against that?"

Mike nods, hits a button, it goes from blinding white to a beautiful deep yellow.

"Wow!"

He laughs, "That's nothing!". Another button push and it's playing video at an amazing frame rate.

"Wow, wow, wow! Danny would love this!"

"He does."

"Our Danny that is, the maker of the light cannon."

"Oh, right."

Mattie turns to Leo, "Can we mask out the areas of their video wall?"

"According to the docs we need the lights off in here, lights on in the adjoining rooms, it auto-detects and masks those. If we can have the video wall on but not as bright it might work without us having to adjust anything."

They get the house lights off and give it a go. Leo looks at the small LCD on his remote. "That worked."

Mike looks at them both, "How do we mask out the floor? We don't want to blind the ravers."

"Any good at video games?"

"Reasonably good."

Leo passes him the remote. Talks him through the menu options. "Get your glasses back on. Then press OK. Guide the dot with the joystick into a corner and press 1. Then move clockwise to the next and press 1 again. You'll see it start to draw a hashed out polygon. When you're at the final corner press 2, it will link that to the first."

Mike starts drawing. "This is rather neat, such a simple GUI idea. Who came up with this?"

Mattie beams, "That was one of my ideas."

"Code it too?"

"Of course."

"Cool. I'm trying to learn, got myself one of those PiZero2 a few weeks ago."

"Two?"

"Yeah, the one with built in WiFi."

"Nice."

"How do I delete a mistake?"

Leo looks at the dot too high up the wall. "Easy, just press 3. Careful only to press the once or you'll delete more than the last point."

Mike deleted his error, turns and does the last two corners, hits 2. The hashed polygon vanishes, the walls of the venue are covered in large animated DCL LC360 logos. "Ha, no forgetting who made it. How do we feed our 360 video into it?"

"Over gig ethernet. Where's the feed come from?"

Mike pats the desk, "Here, Cat 6."

Leo looks behind him. "Ah. The frames at the other end. He walks over to Mike and looks at the space, he does a slight grimace, "No space for it to be safe in there."

Mattie places a hand on Leo's shoulder, "I'll get the go-bag out". She goes to the shipping box and gets out a bag full of bits, drum of fibre, powered converters.

Leo looks at the space, "We've got the kit, how we get from A to B is the problem."

Mike nods, "Can't go over the floor, it's going to be full of people dancing and jumping around."

Mattie's moved to the control desks and parked her bottom on the scaffold like frame around it, has a stupid grin on her face, "Easy!"

They all turn to look at her.

"How?"

"Leo, you thought the zip wire in Antigua was the closest you'd get to being Spiderman. I reckon with the help of the guys we can go one better."

Mattie gets out her phone and shows them the photo Paul had shot, remembers for a change to give Rod the editing credit.

They get a couple of pulleys and long ropes hooked up to the harness. Thankfully the weight in Leo's legs helps keep him upright. Leo looks down to see one of the men filming everything on his phone. He catches Leo's eye and calls out, "For Billy, assuming he ever gets off the John."

With a bit of careful coordination they get Leo from floor at the video desk to balcony, across to cannon and stage gantry, then down to the stage floor. He pulls fibre as he goes, using loose cable ties to hold it close to the steel cables.

Mattie gets him free of the harness, "Had fun Bunny?"

"Yeah, it was rather. Would have been better with you up there too." gives her a peck.

They get everything connected and head back to the control desk.

Mattie waits for Mike to come off his phone, "All done, space calibration next." she gets dark glasses out of the go-bag and hands a pair to Leo and Mike, puts on the third, "Sorry, everyone that doesn't have laser safety goggles needs to step out."

Inky puts a hand up, "Does it damage camera sensors?"

"Can do, if it falls directly on them."

"Give me five then." he races off to cover some kit.

~~~

Mike's impressed, "Shame it's using such high power laser to map the space, the light show's quite good."

Leo doesn't look away from his remote, "We can simulate it and more with the projector, much safer and we can do any colour you want, like your wall." seconds later everything is dark, except the slight glow from the tiny display lighting Leo's face. "All done."

"Why does it need to map the space?"

"Think of your video as a 360 sphere, an equal distance from the projector in the centre to any given point."

"Ok, I can picture that."

"Now picture someone pushing it in at places, distorting the projection."

"That too."

"So our FPGA array takes the room, the distortions, and does a real time transform on your video so it looks like you're still in the sphere."

Mike hits a button to bring on some lights, looks at them both, "I'd love to see the math that thing does! You said all done, like ready for video?"

"Yes."

"Awesome. This is the video for a track off their second album."

"Which track?" Mattie asks.

"What Does Love Mean."

Mattie starts whistling the intro. Mike punches a button and the music kicks in.

"You have a backing track?"

"No way, they play live. This is just for crew like me to get used to lighting sequences without needing them on stage."

"So it's not all preprogrammed?"

"Haha, no way, this is a live show! Only my keyboard is a lighting desk not musical keyboard. He starts playing, getting the video wall changing, lights on the gantry turning and changing beam width and colour. "The guys do play short samples, but it's not a case of hit play and step back, far from it!"

Mattie gives him a smile, "Nice! Like your keyboard, unsung fourth band member?"

Mike smiles, "Thanks, I like that. As you can see there are a lot of people that help put a gig together that the public don't see. Like you'll not meet the guys that put our 360 video together. Or the animation guys."

There's a shout at one of the rear doors, "Can we come back in?"

Leo shouts back, "Sorry! Yes!", turns to his wife, "Sorry, thought you'd said something."

Leo hands Mike the remote. "Looks like you're good for tonight, we'll be off."

Mattie's face drops, "What!"

Mike looks panicked. "You're fucking joking right? Sellout end of tour show with teaser tracks from the fourth album? First use of this new projector and you want to go? No way!"

Mattie clenches her fist and wants to pump the air but holds back, whispers to herself, "Yes!", asks "What time are they on?"

Mike checks his run sheet, "Still midnight."

"Great! I'm starving! Who's coming for dinner?"

Leo looks a bit shocked, "What? More food? Where are you putting it?"

Mike looks at her, "Not eating for two are you?"

Mattie's face drops. "You mean like.."

"Yeah, how do you Brits put it? Bun in the oven?"

She looks at Leo, "Oh my God! I've not taken my pills once since we got on the ship!", her eyes well up, "Oh God! Oh God! I want kids, just not yet!"

Leo puts an arm around her, "Probably just a coincidence, don't panic."

"Don't panic? This is frigging MAJOR!"

Mike tells them there's a pharmacy two blocks south if they want to get a test kit.

No sooner have the words been said Mattie walks quickly towards the rear exit.

Leo grabs both of their jackets, "When d'you need us back?"

"Eleven fifty worst case, sooner if you can. Good luck!"

"Thanks Mike, see you soon."

~~~

Mattie's sat at the dinner table, six kits minus their boxes all in a row. All saying negative.

Leo's on the mobile, talking to the ships doctor. "Thanks, I'll let her know, we'll see you in the morning. Yeah, we'll be out very late at a show. Yes. Thanks again." he puts down the phone and sighs. "Doc says it's most probably pseudocyesis. false pregnancy. He'll give you a check-up in the morning. He's fine with you having a few drinks tonight."

Mattie does a long drawn out sigh and drops her shoulders. "By rights I should be pregnant shouldn't I?"

Leo places his hand on hers, "It's all timing he says. Some couples are lucky and get pregnant first try, some try for many months."

Mattie looks at the testers again, "Lucky? I guess that depends on your point of view. Thanks. I don't think Mum's quite ready for being called Grandma just yet. Won't make that mistake again. Still starving, what are you having?"

~~~

Leo had never seen Mattie at a rave, any rave for that matter. It came as a bit of a surprise. Lots of people packed standing into a room, many of which were waving arms about, singing, shouting. Spilling drinks. He was grateful for being with Mike and his partner, the audio guy and his girl, their private little dance space around the desk. One man on the other side of the barrier had been soaked by another tripping and throwing his 2 pints of lager forwards.

Mattie had her arms in air, dancing, really enjoying the gig. Leo smiled to himself. It had all been worthwhile.

The mood was nothing short of ecstatic. He noticed there were a few people trying to sell pills, very few takers, most were high on adrenaline and endorphins, didn't need any man made boosting. There were many long term fans, a large proportion of the crowd were singing back the songs to Alana and the boys. Leo could have sung along to a few already, after all, with his memory he never forgot a word. Unless erased with Mattie's help.

When Between II Worlds comes on the band show case their animators new work, a 360 degree cartoon anime film made especially for the tour. Mattie leans against Leo, resting from her energetic dancing the previous three tracks.

After a few minutes she pulls him around and has a hug, listening to the vocals.

"It was a dream

Except, it wasn't like a normal dream

I was awake

Would you like to see what I saw, feel what I felt?

I'll take you there

Try not to think

Just breathe

Try not to think

Now close your eyes."

She does as the song suggests, is hit by an image of a forrest. In front of the largest tree she's ever seen is Leo. He's holding a sign up, the words "I LOVE YOU" sloppily painted in red. A tin of paint and a brush are on the ground.

She recoils, pulls her head away in shock, frowns at Leo. "What the frig?"

"You got the message then?"

"I LOVE YOU?"

"Yes!"

"How the hell?"

"We're tired, the loud music, it looks like our minds have to be somewhat void of all the normal junk we think about, receptive."

Mattie laughs, "Maybe that shark fancied you after all shark boy!"

They spend the next few minutes locked together as if Mattie's lip balm had been accidentally swapped with super glue.

The intro to Guilt starts playing and Mattie's embrace turns into a hug, her face buried into his shoulder. Her body's moving in a way that clearly says crying.

Mike sees them, takes a step closer, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, this track has special significance for us, it helped free me from kidnappers"

"Really? How?"

"Long story, I'll tell you after the gig over a pint if you'd like?"

"Ok." Mike returns to his lighting desk.

When In The Way plays Mattie laughs, wipes a tear. She points to the concentric waves on the top of Mike's pint of water. "Good job I'm not pregnant, that bass would be rewriting my babies DNA!"

At the end of the track Alana turns off her microphone and talks to Dan. He shrugs, then nods, slowly plays four notes to Joe who nods back. The crowd know them too, go a little crazy.

Mattie sees Mike check a sheet, he looks over, "Curve ball! She's changing the run order, we were going to skip that track."

When Innocence starts to play Alana turns her mic back on, shouts out "Enjoying yourselves New York?"

After the roar settles she adds, "I'm changing a word for our new UK friends Mattie and Leo. And everyone else here in love."

Mattie looks at Leo, he shrugs.

When Alana first sings the modified lines Mattie screams with happiness. "Innocence. You'll always be mine."

Mattie keeps having to wipe away tears of joy, eventually gives up and just lets them flow unhindered.

~~~

When the set is over she sits back on the barrier in a dream like state. "That was more frigging awesome than the most awesome thing in the universe."

Mike's partner chuckles, "Sounds like we've got a confirmed fan there. Hay Mattie, coming to the after party?"

"After party? Who what where when?"

~~~

Mattie and Leo enter a clubs function room, the band having booked it for a crew end of tour thank you party. A few select guests had been invited. Mattie looks towards a corner, "Isn't that our latest UK supermodel being fussed over?"

Leo turns and takes a glance, "Yes that's her."

One of the roadies finds them and leads them to a group of people. The group part and Mattie realises who they are. "Nice hat you had on earlier Dan! And the beard is filling out really nicely."

"Thanks, Mattie isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Dan turns to his mother, "Mum, did you get the photos?"

Fay nods, "Yes, they should be in your dropbox."

Dan turns to Leo, "All good Leo, thanks for your help with all the gear."

Mattie turns to Leo, a seriously confused look on her face. "When were you introduced?"

Dan flashes a glance at Leo. The cat's almost out of the bag.

Leo thinks fast, "Alana said Mattie and Leo on stage, so if you're introduced it's logical to assume I'm the other half."

Dan gives Leo a tiny nod.

"Guess so". She takes a pint being offered by one of the roadies. "My Dad, Joe, got a Fedora. It's nicely weird, one of my best friends is called Daniel, Dan, and my Dad's Joseph, Joe. The two names of the men in my favourite band. Only with my Dan and Joe the hats on the wrong head."

Joe burst out laughing. Mattie looks around the room, suddenly very self conscious. "Sorry, have I missed a joke? What I said wasn't that funny surely?"

Joe's laughing calms down, "Sorry, can't do this anymore."

"Do what?"

"We've been in touch with Leo for a while. How do you think we get so much bass without huge towers of speakers?"

Mattie looks lost. "You what?"

"DCL Bass Cannons? We've been fans of your kit for a while!"

Mattie spins around to Leo and thumps him hard in the chest, making him cough. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"And ruin the surprise? You'd have been thinking about it every day and not enjoying yourself!"

"True. Guess that was the right thing to do." she grabs him by the hair at the back of his head and pulls him into a long open mouthed kiss. Alana gives a whistle, roadies clap and cheer.

When she's back in the room mentally Dan tells her how his Mum's synth is also due an upgrade when they get back to the UK.

Leo makes a confession. "I planned everything to get to this evening. Knew the date they'd be playing here, worked backwards."

"So this wasn't a coincidence!"

"No, the big coincidence that worked out really well was when working backwards from today the wedding fell on your 21st."

"And all that stuff with Billy and not knowing the lighting setup?"

A voice behind her says, "All part of the show". She turns to see a new face, it smiles, "Hi I'm Billy. I believe this is for you?"

As she looks downward Billy lets the thing in his hands drop and unfold, corners held in a pinch. "Leo gave me your sizes."

"So you didn't have food poisoning?"

"Ha! No, just keeping out of the way making a t-shirt."

"Has this been filmed? Have I been Punk'd?"

Joe laughs, "Crap! We missed an opportunity there!"

Dan looks across at his fellow musician, "Maybe we didn't mate! Not Punk'd style but we'll have caught a lot of it on the 360 cameras."

"360 cameras?"

"You didn't notice the tripod on stage and to the side of the mixing and lighting desks? Recording video? DCL box under Mike's desk?"

"No." Mattie has a sudden realisation, "So I could watch this back, see myself like you did with the PTSD treatments?"

Leo nods.

Dan folds his arms and puts on his show shades, Joe does the same, Alana steps in front, whips her hair and strikes a pose. "Surprise! NERO style!"

Mike steps forward to join them, "Hope you enjoyed our little joke. Like Alana's rework of Innocence?"

"You were in on it too, knew all along?"

Mike just smiles. After a moment he remembers something from earlier, "Leo, you said Guilt saved you? How?"

Leo explains Mattie's homework and Sentinel, the clue that further clues were in the play list.

"But I don't sing Sentinel anywhere?"

Mattie gets out her phone and scrubs to the point in the track.

"That's interesting, we could use that trick in future tracks."

Dan frowns, "So we write a track, you're fans of it, make a point of using it in a hidden message. You then help develop the kit we end up using for gigs. All without us knowing each other yet? That's a pretty frigging massive coincidence!"

Mattie just smiles like all off her dreams have come true at once. She's suddenly struck with a weird fear. "Someone pinch me!"

Leo looks at her oddly, "Everything okay?"

"No. Just had the weirdest feeling that I'm still lying on Toby's bedroom floor listening to the album on his HiFi. You're still missing and this is all just a long dream."

Alana smiles, "It's no dream, it's all real."

"How can I know?"

"That this isn't something like a dream within a dream, Between Two Worlds or Inception style?"

"Yeah."

Leo laughs, "I'll tip you backwards into the jacuzzi if you'd like?"

"No thanks, not in this weather, a pinch will do."

Leo pinches her bottom very hard.

"Ow! I was thinking back of hand not bum, but thanks, still in the room." she rubs her bottom, "That's going to bruise."

Alana puts her hand on Matti's shoulder, "You should come see us work at County Hall Studios when we're back in the UK. Let's have a girly chat, let the boys talk tec. I'll tell you all about our first meeting at Fabric". Fay, Alana and Mattie head for some comfy sofas, followed by some of the other women.

Dan and Joe take Leo to one side, "So, what gadgets has DCL got in the pipeline for next year?"

Mattie accepts another drink and leans back into the comfy sofa, smiles at Alana, "I really loved the show, I'll be buzzing for days!"

"Thanks."

"Would the boys ever consider bringing something like the BBC Philharmonic team on tour with them? I now know how you like to play live. Circles would be awesome like that!"

"I'm not really sure how they feel about it at the moment, maybe."

Mattie laughs, "I was so annoyed to watch Dubstep Symphony and see you weren't there, just sampled."

"I would have liked to have been there, other things got in the way. Lovely though wasn't it?"

"Yeah, and I think even more of your material would translate to a mix of live instruments and synth. And your voice over the top is the cherry on the delicious cake."

"Awe, thanks Mattie. I had one girl I spoke to the other day in tears, she said she liked my voice so much, is it that different to anyone else?"

"Enough for another band to copy your sound!"

"Oh them. We never speak ill of the dead."

"Dead?"

"Ghost?"

Mattie has a good laugh, "Nice one!"

~~~

Mattie flops into her bed, taps play on her phone. Leo recognises the track, jumps onto the bed and rolls up to her. "Did I Satisfy then?"

"Totally. Did you cancel breakfast? It's due in an hour, I'm frigging shattered. Shattered but so so happy. I love you too Mr Elster-Hawkins."

Within moments she's fast asleep, comfortable in her EDM t-shirt and NERO fleece hoodie. Loe gives her a head bump, "Sweet dreams", is asleep soon himself.


	38. Chapter 38

The return trip is spent with Mattie on the phone for ages, liking things on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or any other site that can give her a NERO fix. Just when she starts to slow down Daniel shares a link. It's to their Dropbox folder full of snaps and video clips Fay and the crew had taken.

The ship heads to the warmer weather at the equator before heading east, Mattie tops up her tan. Dinner time isn't the same with Paul and Jazz about, she misses her new friends.

She returns to the deck one afternoon still laughing. Peggy and Leo look up, he asks what happened.

"I'd just visited the bathroom. I had a woman ask me 'Why would a synth take a piss?' she thought I was my Indian synth copy!"

Leo smiles, "Looking very sexy in pink I might add!"

"Leo!"

Peggy grins, "Don't mind me dear, I've been around the block and the oceans. You love birds go find a room!"

Mattie plays shocked but with a grin, "Peggy!!"

They plan their next cruise, for when Ben's out of surgery and back on his feet. Mattie says she wants to revisit the islands, see how Tobias is getting on. She'd like to help set up more Island Medical Centres. And crush radio-mans poison, rip their lies wide open, educate the locals. Just enough to know that the black magic was evil lies and tricks being used to control them. About time she put her new celebrity to good use.

~~~

Seeing Dan at the port was a reality check, they were home, honeymoon adventure over. Sophie had come for the ride, her previously soft toy too.

"Hi Teeny, how's school been?"

"Great! Got an A++ for my ICT test. And Mr Patches liked my answers too."

"He did, did he?"

"I did, she's a very smart young lady Mattie."

Mattie looks down to Sophie's hip to see Mr Patches hitching a ride in a zip up bag.

"Welcome to the crazy family Mr Patches, how's Ted?"

"He's fine, sticking to his promise, using other words instead."

"Really, like what?"

"When he's really angry he shouts 'Ford Focus!'"

Mattie pats him on the head, "Good, don't go picking up any of his old habits. So what's been going on at home while we've been away?"

Mr Patches looks up at Sophie, "You better tell them."

Sophie takes a deep breath.

"Well, Mummy got a promotion. Daddy too, has a new team to manage. Million pound plus accounts. Max has a publisher wanting to print one of his stories. Nis and Odi are officially a couple. Want to move into their own home, they've seen a house close by. Fred thinks Hobb might be dead."

Mattie pulls a sarcastic face and winks, "Like us then, pretty quiet and uneventful. Nothing for you then?"

Sophie shakes her head, "No, only doing the voice over for a new doll in Toy Story 6. Same boring stuff." winks back. A moment later she smiles, "It's amazing! Normally everyone records their voices on their own. This time they set up a special room. It looked like something out of Dr Who! Like we all had our own teleporter. We could all see each other, pull faces, hear everyone in our headphones but the studio recorded our voices on different tracks. It was great fun!"

"Wow! When's the film out?"

"I can't say, I've had to sign a Non Dis, Non Disc, NDA thingy."

"Non Disclosure Agreement?"

"Yeah! One of those. So what was your honeymoon like?"

Leo rests a hand on her shoulder, "Car's all packed, I'll sit up front with Dan, you can tell Soph all about our adventure."

~~~

When almost home Sophie turns to her big sister, "I almost forgot to say, Mia and me have had our first shoot with Paul at Louise's. It was really fun! Mia looks stunning in white wedding dresses. Max came too, Paul told him something about feet. One of the dresses had no back, almost down to Mia's bottom. You know how low you stuck Fred's charge coil?"

"That low?!"

"Yes, Dad came back to pick us up having gone food shopping. He went really red and started coughing when he got to see it, said he had to go get some air."

"Oh dear. Does Mum know?"

"Yes. When Paul showed everyone the images Mum said Mia was looking drop dead gorgeous and Dad was excused."

"She did? Interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"How Mum described Mia."

"Oh."

Sophie races through the front door, "Mum, Dad! Leo scared off a big white shark and gave Mattie a big surprise! And she took this video message for me with a lot of dolphins!"

~~~

Mattie leans back against her chair, thanks Mia for helping with the cooking. "How's things KC? All good with you both?"

Toby nods, "Getting better, I'll know not to say Star Wars is better than Star Trek when she's had a few pints of snakebite," he gently touches his black eye. "she was play boxing, I stupidly ducked in the wrong direction."

~~~

The following morning Fred brings Peggy over. She's not looking her normal self.

"Hi Peggy, something up?"

"More like down."

"Sorry to hear that. What's down?"

"My mood."

"Oh, sorry."

"And Ben."

"What?"

"He won't be having the surgery after all. Sorry if you waisted any time sorting things out with Fred."

"How would that be a waist? Why isn't he having the surgery?"

"He doesn't need it anymore."

Mattie's being very slow to read between the lines. "How come?"

Peggy reaches out and takes Mattie's hand. "Ben died last night dear."

Mattie drops to a chair, shocked.

"Oh my, I'm so so sorry Peggy", the tears start to well up.

"I wanted to thank you in person. And ask a favour."

"Thank?"

"Yes, Ben passed away with big happy smile on his face, he'd managed to find some old television archive footage of us dancing together. He'd been watching it on the iPad you got him, video looping."

"That's sweet. The favour?"

"Until the next cruise I was wondering if I could make use of one of your spare bedrooms?"

Mattie laughs, "Sure, why not, just don't go getting any indoor fireworks!"

Peggy shakes her head and laughs, "Oh, you're such a spoil sport!"


	39. Chapter 39

The officer at the front desk is surprised to see a rather distraught elderly lady walk into the station. "You okay dear? Been in an accident?"

"My name is Peggy Hathaway, I'd like to turn myself in."

The officer picks up a phone and calls for assistance.

Peggy places a few things on the counter. "These keys and phone belong to Mrs Matilda Elster-Hawkins. She doesn't know I have them."

The officer puts the phone to his chest, "Sorry? Did you say Matilda Hawkins, as in Mattie Hawkins? Parents Joe and Laura?"

She nods to confirm.

The officer returns to the call, "Can you get Pete Drummond? Yes I know he's tech div, but he'll have an interest in this."

EARLIER THAT MORNING...

Mattie can feel Leo's warm leg next to hers. There's a noise nearby, Peggy's up and using the toilet again no doubt. Under the nice thick duvet she imagines they're still onboard the ship, about to be brought their new favourite breakfast. Poached eggs on a nice thick slice of buttered toast. No need to walk downstairs into a relatively cold kitchen. Winter. It wasn't her season of choice. She made a mental note to remember to give the postman a Christmas tip, the PO BOX forwarding service had been keeping him very busy since the last award ceremony. She rubs a leg gently up against Leo's and feels him shift slightly, mumble something about suntan cream. Her bunny was still asleep, dreaming.

A floor board creaks and Mattie opens her eyes to see Fred and Max for a split second before a pillow smothers her face.

No chance to scream. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? She kicks out wildly but under the duvet her efforts are wasted. She tries to raise her arms but can't, body now pinned down under the weight of a synth. Why would they do this? They were FAMILY!

Which one had pinned her down she didn't know, guessed Fred as he had been closest. She wants to breathe but can't, her lungs are starting to burn, her head go light. She feels movement to her side, Leo? There's the sharp sting of a needle, she wants to fight it but can't, the will to do anything slowly ebbing away.

Fred looks at his brother, "Did yours work?"

"Yes. No struggle from Leo."

"Good."

Fred goes to the recently installed walk in wardrobe and pushes all the clothes to one side. He slips a bread knife down a crack between panels. After a few minutes he pulls one away, gets his hand into a gap and removes more. "Old houses with alcove walls make for good places to hide bodies. Leo on the left, I'll put Mattie in the right."

Max watches Fred refit the panels, a look of sadness on his face, "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Me neither, but he left us no choice."

"But why?"

"Max, if I knew for sure I'd tell you. I don't. Yet. And I don't want to speculate."

"You always were the one that liked hard facts."

"Help me find Leo's walking stick and the guns."

Armed with two of the modified paintball guns and a stick they head to Peggy's room. Fred opens the door and steps in to find her awake and sat up. In a calm and hushed voice he says "Don't say a word, get up, get dressed."

Peggy goes to the pavement with the box of papers for recycling and puts it down. She looks around at the neighbour's houses, heads back indoors.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing."

"The sun is up, so you saw SOMETHING, what?"

"Fred, don't shout at Peggy, it's not her fault!"

"Max, Peggy, listen to me, you need to do EXACTLY as I tell you. Now what did you see, I need to know everything."

"A quiet street, no clouds of exhaust fumes off parked cars, just the postman at the far end of the road."

"Ok. Please sit in the kitchen until we call on you again."

Fred opens the garden gate very slowly and peers through the gap, listens for movement. "All clear. Back to the same positions okay?"

They get to the back of the house and listen.

"I'm not going to say this a third time! If you don't get them both here RIGHT NOW I'll trigger this and you can say goodbye to Mia, Niska, Cindy and Odi."

"But Hobb they don't live here now, you'd have to wait while we call them over."

"Laura, don't play me for the fool, there's post on the table addressed to Mattie and Leo."

Laura sighs, "Just another sender that needs to update their address! Check in that draw if you want, there's loads waiting for them. Even better go look in the rooms upstairs, you'll not find any of their clothes or possessions. They moved out ages ago!"

"Ok, Mia, Niska, you're coming with me!" Hobb opens the coat again to show the thing strapped around his chest, a reminder in case someone had forgotten. "Don't try anything silly, one false move and this goes off!"

Max ducks back as Hobb looks towards the door, nods to his brother. He waits a moment and checks again. With Hobbs back to them he quickly gets to the other side and does a head bump.

Fred frowns, "That doesn't look like explosives? Far too many coils and wires." he accesses the family WiFi and does a search. "Oh no!"

He slides down the wall and lands on his bottom.

"Fred? Fred, what's wrong?"

"EMP Bomb."

"What?"

"He's not looking to hurt the humans. Just us and Leo. Electro Magnetic Pulse. If he triggers it Mia and Nis would die, him too unless he's had the pacemaker removed. Our metal head casing wouldn't protect us from all our circuits sending a surge of current. If it's powerful enough it would get us both, even at this distance."

"That's not good."

"They must have found the implanted transmitter and removed it. I thought he must have died, the signal saying he was being taken to the crematorium. It was just a diversion."

Hobb is back down stairs, reluctantly satisfied that the rooms upstairs are only being used by the remaining family members.

Leo's phone buzzes away on the sideboard next door.

"He's not answering."

"Then try Matilda's."

"I did, Mattie's isn't answering either."

~~~

Mattie slowly comes around, is having to breathe through her nose as her mouth is taped. Her hands are free. Was Fred that stupid? As she reaches for it she touches paper. What the hell was going on? Moving her legs she feels something in her lap. A torch. She feels for the switch and turns it on to find wall to her left and wood to her right. It's a tight fit. Vertical coffin thoughts are pushed to the back of her mind. She pulls the tape from her mouth and looks at the note.

'Mattie, Leo, we can't say what's happening yet, for your own safety PLEASE be quiet and stay here until we get you. YOUR LIVES MAY DEPEND ON FOLLOWING THIS REQUEST. Love Fred and Max'

Love? This was something you did to those you love??

She ever so softly hums and sings It Comes and It Goes to herself. When she reaches the words 'it feels like we're out of time' she softy cries.

Mattie sits in silence for what feels like an eternity.

She hears Leo moving, whispers, 'Leo, keep still, it's possibly not what you think. I'm in the other alcove. Somethings up."

~~~

Hobb looks to the ceiling, pulls an angry face and shouts, "TIME IS UP!" he turns to the sisters, "Mia, Niska, into the car."

As Hobb and the sisters go to the car Laura sends the others upstairs to the back room window, the furthest they can get while staying indoors.

As Mia and Nis buckle up Laura reads a message. "Hobb, I've had a text from Leo!"

He turns and walks back to the house. When feet away Laura quickly steps to the side and Fred fires a shot, just as Hobb opens his fingers. It lands in his neck and sends him into spasms. Fred's eyes roll backwards and he collapses to the floor with a hard thud.

"Fred!", his brother races through the kitchen to see what's happened.

In the car the sisters are slumped forward against the front seats. Tears fill Laura's eyes. She runs to Hobb and kicks him in the head as hard as she can. "You fucking bastard!" she suddenly feels guilty and looks around to see if she'd been watched. No curtains twitch. "Max! Check on the others please!"

He does as asked and heads upstairs.

Laura goes to the garage to find some rope. She's not worried about him moving, Hobb is out for the count with concussion from being kicked so hard. Her secret love of watching the England rugby team had paid off. Had his head not been held on by a neck she'd have scored five points for a conversion, sent it clean over the house. It was a wonder she'd not broken his neck. Or her foot. She must have done some damage though surely? A lawyer being caught doing ABH wouldn't be good but she'd got past caring. Her family's safety was the priority. Not Hobb, not being senior partner.

With some help from Max she turns him over and ties his hands.

"The others are okay, I've told them to stay put for the moment."

"Thank you Max. Can you help me bring them all into the house before someone sees?"

Mia, Nis and Fred are sat on the sofa like puppets with their strings cut.

There's a noise at the door, Max looks panicked. There's a further noise as things hit the doormat.

Laura throws a glance, "Don't worry, it's just the Postman. Probably more Christmas cards and fan mail or requests for Mattie." she picks up her phone and speed dials.

The phone lights up and buzzes away on the dash. Joe pulls on the hand brake and hits answer. "Hi Laur, just reached the office, everything okay? Susan's Mum not picked up Soph yet?"

"We've lost Mia, Nis and Fred."

"Lost them? They're not exactly small?"

"Not lost as in mislaid, lost as in dead! Hobb is back."

"Oh shit! Okay, I'm coming back, I'll call Sally and tell her I'll have to skip the meeting, there's an emergency."

She looks at Max, "Joe's on his way back."

~~~

Max pulls one of the many ropes holding Hobb to the wooden chair. "Is it safe to get them over now?"

"Now it is, yes."

~~~

Mattie hears noises and feels a sense of dread. She screams when a knife blade appears through a gap several feet above her head.

"Mattie? Sorry, it's Max. Are you still sat on the floor?"

"You almost gave me a frigging heart attack! Yes I'm on the bloody floor!"

"There's blood? Did I accidentally cut you?"

"No Max it's an expression! I'm angry! What's been going on? Why did you drug me?"

"Give me a moment, don't move from there."

She watches as the blade wiggles about, Max trying to free the panel. "Can't I just push the frigging thing out from in here?"

"Ok, give it a try." he stands back.

He hears Mattie shoving hard against the panel. With no space it's not something she can back away from then hit. After three failed attempts he hears her yell "FUCK!" It gives way after several more attempts. She takes Max's outstretched hand and climbs out. "WHAT THE FRIGGING HELL IS GOING ON MAX!" she counts down from ten in her head trying to calm herself down. "Where's Peggy?"

"She's safe, with your mother." he looks at the floor, unable to keep eye contact, "Fred, Mia and Nis are dead. Hobb's tied up in your parents kitchen."

"What the fuck!"

There's a bang from Leo's side of the panels. She spins and starts pulling at them, "Leo, we'll get you out."

The last panel is pulled away to reveal her husband crying like she'd never seen before, his body convulsing. Between sobs she hears him whispering "Mia, why?" she drops to her knees and tries to console her husband. After a good fifteen minutes Leo has stopped crying and allows Mattie to help him up. "I want to see her."

~~~

Tears run down his cheek as he looks at his family, sat like discarded dolls nobody wanted anymore. He turns to Hobb, anger boiling up inside him. He runs at the man and punches him in the side of the face with all the force he can muster. A moment later Hobb spits out a broken tooth.

"What the hell were you doing bringing my family into this if it was ME you wanted?"

"I wanted them to persuade you to hand over the code."

"We'll hand over the code alright. To EVERY SYNTH ON THE FUCKING PLANET!"

Mattie steps to Leo and tries to place a hand on his shoulder, he flinches, "NOT NOW MATTIE!"

Her sweet Bunny had gone. The wolf was back. Snarling and angry.

He turns to Hobb, stands so close he's spitting on the man while shouting. "MY LIFE HAD FINALLY COME TOGETHER, BEAUTIFUL WIFE, FAMILY ALL HAPPY AND YOU HAVE TO SHOW UP AND FUCK IT ALL UP!" the veins on his forehead and neck are standing out like vines on a tree, face red with anger. He steps back and takes another swing at Hobb.

"LEO! STOP!"

He turns to see his wife.

She gives him a pleading look, "Leo please stop, doing that won't fix anything!"

"But it's making me feel better. Nis used to vent with a scream. This is ME VENTING!" with the last word he knocked Hobb back into a state of unconsciousness. Leo stands there, both fists clenched breathing heavily.

"Better?"

"Better!"

"Now please stop and sit down with me for a moment before you really hurt yourself!"

Mattie goes to the bathroom and gets antiseptic and bandages. She gets a bowl of warm water from the kitchen and heads to the living room. "Leo! Follow me... LEO!"

~~~

After cleaning his knuckles and putting a bandage around his hand she goes to Toby's room and borrows his old headphones. She puts a Nero track into her sound mixing app and makes a loop. In the kitchen she places it on Hobbs head and hits play. She finds the duct tape in the shed and tapes his mouth. "We don't want you waking up and getting into our conversations now do we?"

Laura looks at them both. "Hear no evil, speak no evil. What about see?" she steps to a cupboard and pulls out a large hessian Bag for Life.

Mattie takes it and places it over his head. "That's better. Now we don't need to avoid looking in the bastards direction."

Leo looks to Max. "Why did Fred risk everything like that?"

"He knew Hobb was after you both, we thought he had explosives at first, wanted you both hidden and silent so you wouldn't get in harms way."

"At first?"

"Then we bumped and I shared what I'd seen after we'd hidden you. Sorry about the tranquilizers, best we could do with limited time, Fred had some left from your surgery. He said Hobb had an EMP Bomb. He hoped the shock from the bolt would cause Hobb to grip down tight on the trigger, he managed to let go before the bolt did it's thing. This isn't how he wanted it to end."

"I'm sure he didn't."


	40. Chapter 40

There's an inward gasp and Niska comes to life. "What happened!"

Leo jumps to her side. "Nis?"

She looks blankly forward. "Anyone there? Hello?"

"Nis, can you hear me?"

"Hello? Anyone?"

A few seconds later her eyes move, "Leo!"

The pair hold an embrace like they'd not seen each other in years.

"What happened? I was in the back of a car, Mia to my side when I'm bombarded with static and everything goes blank. I could still think, I had no control over my body, no senses working. It was like my mind had been transported to a dark place somewhere else."

She turns to see her brother and sister, "Oh no! Not Mia, Fred!"

Max tells her everything that had happened that morning. Nis pushes for every little detail.

Minutes later Mia also gasps into life but then says nothing.

Laura looks at them both. "Polyfuses!"

Leo spins to see her, a hint of hope in his eyes, "What did you say?"

"The polyfuses, Niska blew one screaming after her court session, Mia, you told me how they self heal. The pulse thing must have been strong enough to blow fuses but not do any other damage!"

Leo looks to Mia, "Are you okay?"

She doesn't respond to his question looks blankly past him, "File system corruption detected, full scan initiated."

Niska looks at her sister. "Mia was between me and Hobb, she must have partially shielded me from the pulse."

The minutes pass without any other sign of movement. Mattie waves her hands in front of Mia's face, "Nothing. Either the scan is still running or she's so corrupted she can't boot."

Leo buries his face in his hands to hide the tears now flowing. They sit there in silence and watch. Waiting for any sign of life from Mia or Fred. It doesn't come. Minutes turn into an hour. An hour into two.

Max looks at Leo, "Fred was much closer to Hobb than anyone else. I was still near the kitchen door."

Mattie wants to remain hopeful. "Maybe his polyfuses fried, can't heal? He could still be alive just isolated like Mia and Nis were."

Leo looks sadly at his brother, "Any EMP that blew the IO lines should have killed circuits with the rise in current."

Niska leans forward. "Not if the power circuits have better protection?"

"What do you mean?"

"Our charge cables, we just plug into any old dirty mains supply. It must be filtered, protected. Internally, at the end away from the socket would make most sense."

Mattie nods, "So chances are he's still alive, just had the equivalent of a severed spine."

Leo doesn't break his gaze, "How do you fix your prize surgeon when your prize surgeon is the one with the skills?"

"Head bump the skills?"

Leo turns, tears in his eyes, "You frigging genius!", moves to hug her tight.

He turns to his brother and kneels down, pulls Fred's head gently forward. "Brother, speak to me! Show me where you are!"

Leo's mind is transported to a place of total darkness.

"Leo?"

"Fred!"

"Where am I?"

"In Joe and Laura's living room, on the sofa next to Mia and Nis."

"Why can't I do anything?"

"We think some of your polyfuses blew permanently with the pulse."

"Then I'm dead"

"No!"

"There's little point to my existence if I can't hear, talk, feel, move. You might as well power me down."

Leo laughs, "Freddie, don't be so negative, that's not in your nature. You're a fighter and a fixer. The fox, Hobbs leg, the countless people you've helped since!"

Mattie suggested we try a head bump, see if you can transfer your knowledge."

"I tried with Nis, it didn't work. Knowledge is one thing, experience another."

"Can't you share the experience?"

"It would be like me putting you in front of a TV program on painting and expecting you to become an instant master when picking up the brush."

"But it's got to be worth a try?!"

"No. But it has given me some ideas. We need Daniel."

"Ok, I'm going to talk to Mattie, don't go anywhere."

Fred laughs, "Nowhere here to go other than more darkness."

Leo opens his eyes and turns to Mattie. "We need Dan here, fast!"

Twenty minutes later Danny's DC1 screeches to a halt outside. He jumps out and heads to the house, remote held high in his hand. He doesn't turn, just listens for the beeped acknowledgment that the doors have closed and locked. He shares a solemn smile with the waiting Mattie, "Hi, where is he?"

Leo gives Dan a hug, thanks him for getting over so fast. He explains everything that had happened.

Danny looks puzzled. "From what Fred told me about Odi's core swap he shouldn't have lost vision. The connections are internal, don't go via the main cable bundle."

Mattie walks over, mug of coffee between her hands. "But our eyes are not internal. imagine a skull. They sit outside in the eye sockets, covered only by an eyelid."

"True. So their fuses could have gone. I'd expect them to recover at different rates. Nis, did you see first, or did everything come back at once?"

"Touch came back first, then sound and finally vision."

"Must be the fuses then."

Leo kneels down to Fred, gets a message, disconnects and shares it. Danny has a question for Fred, shares it.

"That connect-disconnect message ping pong is going to take forever, give me a minute I'll be right back!". Mattie races off to their house.

Danny looks at Leo, "She looked excited, any idea what she's gone for?"

"No. But knowing her it will be worthwhile. It usually is."

Leo bumps with Fred and says they're still there, waiting a few minutes for Mattie.

"Okay, I'm still not going anywhere."

Mattie returns with Leo's Trooper helmet and gloves. "Dan, put this on. Leo, can you share the protocol data with Fred?"

Leo smiles warmly at his brilliant wife, wipes a happier tear and does as asked. Danny slips on the Helmet.

"Hello Daniel?"

"Hello Fred! It's working! So this is what Mattie was talking about when she mentioned Colin's tiny computer comms. This is neat!"

Fred explains his idea to Danny.

"Wow, that's an interesting solution. Very high risk though."

"True. But I don't see any other option."

"Couldn't you just boost the WiFi power?"

"Yes, but then we risk others accidentally joining in and upsetting the procedures. We need to keep this very low power and private."

"Ok. I'll have a word with Silas, see what he's got spare. And I'll ask Laura and Joe about the garage."

~~~

Silas puts down the phone and laughs. "That takes proper freaky to a whole new level. That I've got to see in person!"

He loads a synth into the cab and gives the driver the address. "20 bonus if you let the ponies have a run right?"

The driver nods and puts the pedal to the floor.

~~~

"Hello Silas, through here if you would."

"Hello Laura, how's the family?"

"Good thanks if you didn't get EMP damage, otherwise pretty shitty. How's Sandra?"

"Wonderful thanks! She's out having her nails upgraded."

"Upgraded?"

"Yeah, solid colour all the way through, blood red. It doesn't chip off like nail varnish. She tried the stuff, it doesn't take well enough."

Laura looks at her own and thinks about taking Mattie with her for a manicure.

"What the fuck? Sorry Mrs H" silas looks at Dan in the trooper helmet, "What are you up to?"

Danny does some finger taps and turns to Silas, "I was talking to Fred, where's the synth?"

"Nice to see you too. She's outside."

"Sorry, good to see you, things have been a bit tense here, what with Hobb about."

"HOBB? That shit's out? Oh fuck!"

"Exactly. He's in the kitchen. Might not be saying much after what they say Leo did to him."

"Kitchen here? What did Leo do? Hobb had the EMP device?"

"Yes. Punched him four times Mattie says. First blow knocked out a tooth, fourth knocked him out. And yes, Hobb had something strapped around his chest."

Silas laughs, "Leo? We are talking about the same guy? Our Leo Elster?"

"Yup. Goes a bit hulk like when furious it would appear."

"I'd have paid for ring side seats to that event! He didn't look like much of a fighter in the workshop all those years ago. Ha! Bantamweight fighter are you now Leo?"

Mattie comes into the garage with her travel speakers, "Hello Silas. Dan, you can take the helmet off now."

She pulls on the velcro holding the board in and takes it and the battery strip out, plugs in the speakers and turns them on. "Hi Fred, can you hear me?"

Fred's voice fills the room, "Hi Mattie, yes I can."

"We're using speakers now. You can talk with everyone in the room. Dan, Silas, Mum, myself. Leo should be here in a moment."

"Hi everyone. What I'm wanting to do hasn't been done before. I want to create a link to a non-conscious synth and see if I can control its body, take over its senses."

Mattie frowns, "Do you really think that's possible? Or wise?"

"Possible, yes. Wise, maybe not. Do you have a better idea?"

"Um. No, sorry"

Silas steps closer to the microphone, "Fred, what d'you need me for?"

"I want Daniel to create a WiFi bridge with aerial that straps around my head so I can drop down to ultra low power. A second aerial that I can attach to my core once exposed. Silas, I want you to integrate the Ethernet from the bridge directly into the synths processor core. Then write code that will let me take total control over the link."

Silas smiles, "Like those parasites that get into snails, jack into their nervous system and take over their bodies? Watched that on the Discovery Channel. Proper proper freaky!"

Mattie pulls a face, "Eww, the poor things!" she steps forward, "Fred, that's a hell of a lot of data."

"I was about to get to you. I need you to write code for both of us. Do you know how BitTorrent works?"

"The basics, I don't use it. When you download a file you're actually grabbing fragments from many servers, spreading the load and getting the best combined throughput?"

"Close enough. I want you to write code that will time slice the sensory data, segment it torrent style, allow multiple processes to compress the fragments simultaneously and send them out on the WiFi. Code on the receiving end to uncompress and reassemble the fragments. Any fragment loss discard the whole slice."

Mattie raises her eyebrows, "That's some code you want!"

"I'll help if you get stuck. I need my brother back!"

Mattie turns to see a very red eyed Leo give her a sad smile.

A soft "Thank you brother" comes over the speaker. Fred then goes on to describe the process they'll follow.

"We'll get the connection between surrogate body working first, see that I can get good enough accuracy with the latency added by the link. I'll then design the support I want one of you to cut from wood. We'll need lots of air cooling as I'll be working on my own exposed core, no fluid so high risk. I'll slow CPU clock cycles down to just what's needed, power unused cores and systems off. The surrogate synth will need a full charge before starting"

Danny looks around the room, "Cooling is going to be tricky. Think eyeball man in Blade Runner. You'll want to all get dressed up for subzero conditions"

"Really? That cold?"

"If we're to depend on air cooling alone. Yes."

"How do we get the place that cold?"

"Hire loads of gear. Or we take everything to a freezer store."

Laura turns to Danny, "What about those big lorries that transport frozen food to supermarkets?"

"Brilliant Mrs H! Someone must hire them out. Toby and I've seen unbranded ones delivering to HA's store. I'll get on it!"

Mattie gets her slate and fires up her coding software.

The surrogate synth is mostly carried in by Silas, Leo holding its feet. " reason you picked a female model?"

"Mattie said Fred wanted it to do surgery. This series has the best motor control out of the few I had to hand. Worried he'll want to become a cross dresser afterwards?"

Leo laughs, "The thought hadn't crossed my mind but now you've mentioned it I'm fighting hard not to picture it"

As they're about to enter the garage Joe pulls into the drive.

Silas rests the synth against the shelving unit and goes to his bag. He gets out and old heavy Panasonic Toughbook, getting a raised eyebrow from Mattie.

"She might not be as fast and light as your Slate, but she can survive being dropped. Can yours?"

"Never risked it. Don't want to find out."

"Trust me, it's ugly. A client dropped his on my office floor. What a mess! Get yourself a protective case."

"Thanks." Mattie gets coding on a test harness, code that will simulate the synth environment and sensory data stream allowing her to try some ideas out on the Slate.

Joe opens the garage door, "Leo, Mia's asking for you."

Leo crouches down in front of Mia and places a hand on hers. "Mia, are you okay?"

She looks right through him as if he wasn't there, "5,242,880 corrupted pages, reformat, yes or no?"

"NO! Sit still, don't do a thing! I'll be back in a few minutes." some corners get a thump as he races to the garage. "Mattie, Silas, Mia's in a bad way, says she's got 5 million corrupted pages and should she reformat!"

"Shit!". Silas looks at the garage floor. "I've seen something like this only once before. If we're lucky it's not the pages at all. It's her file allocation table. Only to revert to the backup cleanly we need a perfect root code and hers sounds corrupted. She needs her root code reapplied. Otherwise it will be like she's had the worst case of amnesia."

"We've got her old root code. On headcrack! Remember? It's how you found me". Mattie goes to the site to find her post, only to find a message to say the file has been removed. "Shit! Why'd they have to do that?"

"Isn't it on your Slate?"

"I've upgraded twice since then!"

"Can I use yours a minute?". Leo gets a nod and sits in front of it, starts a browser.

A few minutes later he smiles widely, "Fancy a drive Joe?"

"Where to?"

"Angel Hosting! You've been there before."

Mattie looks at her watch then Joe, "Think the same lads will be on shift?"

"No idea. Some IT places don't keep staff long, might not even work there now. Give me the postcode, I'll let Waze direct us."

Silas looks at them all, "Anyone staying with me and Fred?"

Laura's standing at the garage door, "I was about to ask who wants tea or coffee. I'll keep you company. Fancy some cake?"


	41. Chapter 41

Mattie rests her elbows on the counter and looks down at the parts on the desk. "Nothing's changed much then? Though I see you've put cameras up, hope their not just dummies."

Tim looks up with a smile, "Mattie Hawkins! Bloody hell! Never expected to see you again!"

"You remember me?"

"Do we!"

"How?"

"You put a poster up and handed out cards remember? We must have got at least fifty new small clients, then referrals from most of them. Got a panic button too as you suggested."

Leo looks up at the ceiling to see a camera in each corner, coax wire running from them both into a common hole in the wall.

Mattie watches Tim change a small fan on a GPU cooler, "But how'd you remember my name not just what I did? It's Elster-Hawkins now by the way."

Tim reaches forward and pulls something from the partition screen under the shelf. He looks at it for a moment then spins it around to show the three of them.

"That must make you Leo. Hi, I'm Tim. Mum had this issue, was going to chuck it into the recycling with Dads papers. I spotted it just in time."

Inside a photo frame is the front page of a Hello magazine cover, a Year in review special. "Couldn't sign it for us could you? You're our lucky mascot."

Mattie chuckles, "I am? Sure. IF you can help us first."

"With?"

"A file off headcrack.net that got pulled."

"They were running low on space, asked us to help with a tidy up. Got a file name?"

Mattie shows him a photo she'd snapped of the file path and name.

"Okay, give me a moment."

"Glad we caught you in, not someone else."

"Someone else? There's only the two of us, working all possible hours. We could do with some help but can't find the right people."

Mattie drums her fingers on the shelf, Joe rests a hand on hers to stop it. "So the other lad is still with you?"

"Si? Yeah, he's doing a drive swap on a server, should be back soon."

"Si?"

"First two letters of Simon, pronounced Sigh, just don't call him Simon. He had so many people ask if he was a synth he started sighing before telling them he wasn't. One day I called him Sighing Simon and he's use Si ever since."

He smiles at Joe and looks back to his screen. "Yeah, it's on a tape backup at our remote site. I'll tell the robot to load the tape up."

"Robot?"

"Just a mechanical arm on a track, nothing exciting. Though it does move bloody fast. Should have your file in ten mins."

"Thanks. Want to unclip that frame then? What pens have you got?"

Tim has a rummage through his draw, "Biro, Biro or .... Biro. The red's gone dry. Black or Blue?"

"There's a new WHS a few doors down, let me grab something."

She leaves the three men to chat.

Leo motions to the cameras, "The real thing or dummies?"

Tim nods, "Very real. IP cameras that stream to a digital recorder."

"Onsite?"

Tim nods again, "Locked into a cabinet in the back room."

Leo does an short rhythm on the shelf with his nails. "The main reason Mattie suggested getting it is out of action. But other's may follow in his footsteps. As it's IP I'd get the recorder off site."

"You'd go to those lengths?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Easily done. We'd just need to ensure we have Broadband out of the site rather than use the internal network so we can get alerts from it."

"Alerts?"

"It's got motion detection code. We get a image pushed to our mobiles if it triggers."

"What's the model number?"

"I'll get it, why the interest?"

"I'm a coder, I've got some ideas for improvements."

"Ok". Tim gets up and heads into the back room.

"What sort of improvements?"

Leo taps his fingers again, "Better change detection. I've heard of a case of a burglar moving so slowly it didn't trigger the alarms. It used frame to frame comparisons."

Joe sifts through the magazines on the coffee table. "How would you fix it?"

"Shape detection. Checking past frames. A number of things."

Tim returns and hands Leo a slip of paper. "Here you are."

"Thanks, I'll look it up."

~~~

The silver pen is waved over the corner of the page, "So how would you like me to sign it?"

"To Tim and Si?"

Mattie writes 'To Tim & Si, my hosting crew and life savers! Love Mattie E-H x x x'

She hands it back, "I'd let that dry for a few mins before you put it back into the frame."

Tim looks at what she'd written, "Life saver? Really?"

"Yes. Quite literally."

"Blimey. Thanks. How exactly?"

"Long story. Don't have the time at the moment, I'll tell you next visit."

"You're coming back?"

"Yeah, and I'll bring friends."

"Great. Thanks. And we'd definitely vote for you to win."

"Win? Win what?"

Tim looks across at Leo, gets a shush face. "London Woman of The Year."

"Never heard of it."

"It's new. Only just launching. Web site still being developed". Tim manages to keep a straight enough face to almost get away with it, have Mattie drop it there.

"The year is nearly over, that wouldn't leave much time for voting?"

"It's like those car awards. Awarded in one year for things done in the previous one."

"Oh. Okay."

Tim looks at his screen, cat safely back in the bag, "We've got the file across, got a USB key?"

"No, sorry, sort of left home in a hurry."

"Okay, archive DVD it is then!" he leaves his desk and goes to another room.

Joe gives Mattie a hug. "I know I messed up with Anita, Mia, in the past. But I'd hate to think of her as dead, she's really become part of the family. She's like a sister to your mother."

"She's like a big sister to me too, and Soph. And Toby now he's got Holly-Anne."

"She's been both a sister and mother figure to me. This has to work."

Mattie sees the tears welling up and pulls him into a group hug. "Have faith. We'll do everything humanly possible to get her back and then some."

Tim returns with a gold DVD and loads it into the burner. "We normally burn these slowly to increase archival quality, got fifteen minutes?"

Mattie nods, "Sure, I'd rather get home later with a perfect copy than quickly with something with bit errors. Anywhere around here we can get a coffee?"

"Sure. How d'you take it? Si bought a Nespresso machine."

Leo smiles, "Hot and strong with a little milk. I'll have the same. You Joe?"

"I'm good thanks."

The four of them chat about backups, are joined by Si, "Do you know we do an encrypted backup service? You install a Windows client that uses something like rsync. You set the encryption level per folder."

"I didn't. That would have been useful on the Slate, saved a trip. Where do they backup to?"

"Our sites only, not the cloud."

"Got many people using it?"

"Hear about the recent Safe Harbour ruling?"

"No?"

"Let's just say we've got a growing number of customers who want to be 110% sure their backups are staying in the UK."

The DVD drive draw ejects and PC beeps.

"Here you are, hope it all works for you."

Leo reaches over the counter shelf to shake their hands, "Thanks guys, if this works as planned we'll be back to help in as many ways as we can. When Mattie said 'life saver' she wasn't kidding."

~~~

Leo, sat on the middle rear seat next to Mattie, looks at the disc. He turns it slowly, watching how the light reflects and refracts. He's got a distant soft smile, "One life, archived in gold. To be kept under lock and key. Do you think it's real gold?"

Mattie turns away from the street view and places a hand on his leg. "One of my lecture professors uses them. Says they're 24 karat, pure gold. Or at least a very thin film of it sandwiched between the tough plastic layers. Should be good for 300 years he says. Not sure how anyone can prove it."

Leo slips the disc back into the paper sleeve and hands it to his wife. "I was at the keyboard last time, but you were the one that really saved Mia. It was your brains that figured it out. You should be the one to do this."

"No."

"No?"

"We'll do it together."

Joe looks in the rear view mirror to see Leo's head resting on Mattie's shoulder, her head leaning against his. He slows down and takes more care to avoid the many potholes.


	42. Chapter 42

The front door goes, "Mum, we're back!"

They get to the living room to find Mia and Niska being kept company by Peggy.

"Hello my dear, did you get what you needed? Niska's been telling me about some of her adventures. I thought that big thing by the front window was some modern art of Toby's. He hasn't moved in over a year she says?"

Mattie looks over at MUS, "Arnold? No, just trickle charges and gathers dust waiting for new orders from Sophie. She used to dust him every day. Hasn't done so for weeks. Where's everyone else?"

Nis looks up, "Party in the garage."

Mattie puts her phone and keys down, keeps hold of the DVD. She heads to the garage with Leo and Joe, "I'll need my Slate. And external DVD drive."

Niska turns to Peggy as she sees her take things from the table and pocket them, "Don't you think she'll notice?"

"Yes, but not for a good while, their minds are all elsewhere dear. These will help me get back. I'm going for a long walk, see you later."

~~~

Toby spins in a chair Danny style, a fresh plate of cakes in his hands, "How's it all going?"

Silas looks up from his coding, locks fingers and has a good stretch. "All done. I think."

Mattie frowns ever so slightly, "Any way to test it?"

"We could have Fred talk to it direct over WiFi, at high power levels, just to see if it works?"

Fred comes over the speakers, "Too much data remember?"

"Sandra's on her way over in a cab. And I don't want to leave until I've seen this all working."

Toby puts up a hand, "Um, I might have an idea."

Mattie's gut feeling wasn't good, but one of the many things her uni team had taught her was to listen first. She made a face that told him to carry on.

"I used to play with DAZ3D. One guy made a 3D printed model that had resisters in the joints. He'd move the doll and the 3D figure would move in the same way. Couldn't we do it in reverse? Move the 3D figure and have the code move the synth?"

Mattie gives him a nod and smile, "Blimey KC, your playing with dolls has paid off."

"They were battle figures."

"Dolls."

"Figures."

"Whatever!" she gives him a wink.

Silas downloads the code and gets to work reading documentation.

Laura gets up and asks if anyone wants more drink or food. Leo looks around the group and asks "Pizza?"

~~~

Mattie is tapping out a rhythm with her thumbs on the edge of the Slate's keyboard, whispering "just get up and go, leave it all behind" at intervals. Leo smiles and remembers their NY evening with fondness. "Any news on the DVD?"

Mattie looks down at the gold disc on the bench, "Still there, I need to hook up my external drive."

"Not that one, the concert."

"Oh, sorry, not yet," she resumes the thumb tapping, "I'm going to need a Nero fix soon." she takes off her jumper, looks down at her EDM tshirt and smiles to herself.

~~~

They're half way through their lunch when Mattie looks at her watch, "What happened to Danny?". Nobody knows. She looks around the table for her phone, picks up Leo's and sends him a txt.

Five minutes later a response comes back. She wipes the tomato sauce from her mouth and reads it to the room, 'Got a solution. Getting Dads help. Can you ask any neighbours parked out front to move?'. "What on earth is he getting?"

Fred answers, "Equipment to drop the temperature in here."

"But why would he need the road clear?"

"I don't know."

She looks around the room, nobody has any suggestions.

They're passing around the last few slices to see if anyone would take them when there's a deep and loud horn noise from outside.

Mattie jumps, thinks fireworks and giggles to herself getting a quizzical look from Leo. "What the frigging hell was that?"

Everyone gets up to look.

The speaker talks to an empty room, "From the samples I've just compared I think that was a trucks air horn."

"Bloody hell that's massive!" Joe can't believe the size of the thing.

Danny's father jumps down from the high cab. "Nice isn't it! Always wanted to put my HGV license to good use. She's a beauty!"

"You could fit Fred's little hospital in there!"

Danny walks around the back of the trailer. "That's exactly why I got it. This would allow us to take Fred's services to people that aren't safe to travel to London."

Danny's father beams, "Freezer cooling when needed, down to minus 20. Air sprung suspension. And the tractor's lovely, sleeping space for two. We could have two drivers and do shifts, be in Scotland in eight hours."

Silas pulls a face, "Not bad, takes me about 10 on my bike with food and piss stops."

"Don't get ahead of yourself yet Dad, we've not even done a fit out yet."

"I know, just fancy being on call to go help rescue people in need. My chance to be a Thunderbird driver."

Danny laughs, "Haha, forget DC plates for this, I'll see if TAG1 is free."

Mattie looks curious, "You said 'Got it'? You didn't hire it?"

"Nah, Autotrader's truck page. The firm's largest client was going ambient only, didn't want to keep all the fleet. Shame for them, they only had them four months."

"Ambient?"

"Room temperature stuff. Doesn't need keeping cold."

"Oh, okay." Mattie uncrosses and lowers her arms, not feeling the cold so much now. Maybe the cold was just her imagination.

Danny looks at her chest. "Electronic Dance Music is your Every Day Music. Nice. What's the track?"

She looks at Leo, "Did you tell him?"

"Tell him what?"

"About the tshirt?"

"No?"

She looks back at Danny, raises an eyebrow, "Well done, first guess."

Danny laughs, "Wasn't exactly hard. When I see you at your Slate it's either coding, some EDM news site, Facebook or Headcrack."

Toby looks at the double doors at the back. "Won't we look a bit suspicious loading Fred and the gear into it?"

Danny turns to look, "Hadn't thought of that. It's way too long to back into the drive. Dad, let's go for a drive."

"Where to son?"

"I'll get the address on the way."

They all watch the massive lorry drive away. Leo puts an arm around his wife, "Have you ever known Danny to do things by halves?"

She gives him a peck on the cheek, "Never! And I hope he never will."

~~~

Laura brings in more coffee, chat's with Mattie about the code she's writing. Mattie runs a number of test cases and asks Leo to help debug the last few issues. As Laura is getting up to swap chairs with Leo she looks at her daughter, "Do you know where Peggy went?"

"She's gone?"

"Nis says she went for a walk."

"Don't know."

Leo points to a variable in her code, "I think you've accidentally put one to many dollars at the front of this one."

"Frigging hell, my most common mistake. I ought to write a script to find some of those. Or add some colour coding to the editor so it stands out." she does a search and replaces the one instance found. The test harness code is run and starts outputting data. "I've only got 8 cores in this, so I've only assigned 10 of the 16 threads it can run to compression and decompression. One each to the send and receive fragment handlers."

Leo looks at the numbers flying up the console window. "Still looks good though. Should be fine for Freddie."

Mattie looks across to Silas, "We've got our code done, how's yours?"

"I finished the code a while ago. It's soldering a direct Ethernet patch onto the board that's giving me a challenge. Almost there."

She looks at the Slate, "How do we give Fred the code?"

Leo leans back in his chair and straightens his legs, talks through a yawn, "Got a local HTTP server? You could give him a URL."

"In need of bed again sleepy? Not local, okay, app store next."

"Finally!" Silas puts down his soldering iron and slides the core back into the synths head, "Hate high density surface mount PCBs. Fred wouldn't be happy with the quality of that soldering. Looks like a right dogs dinner. But my meter says it's good, no shorts."

"As long as it helps free me from this darkness I don't mind what it looks like."

Silas smiles at the speakers, "Thanks." he works on closing the scalp and back of the synths head then removes the material that had been hiding it all from view. The yellow Ethernet patch cord comes out just above the hairline at the back of her neck. "What's the status of Danny's WiFi bridge?"

Mattie looks around the bench. "Frig. I put my phone down in the living room. He might have sent a text. Back in a mo."

Five minutes later she's back, "Where my keys, where's my phone?"

Toby does the dance and repeats the words.

"I'm serious, I can't find them!"

Leo yawns again, gets up and wobbles, "I'll help look for them."

"You okay? You look knackered."

"All this worrying is wearing me out."

Mattie is about to leave the garage when Silas's phone starts playing music. She turns, "I recognise that tune, from when I was little, what is it?"

"What do you see

You people gazing at me

You see a doll on a music box

That's wound by a key

How can you tell

I'm under a spell

I'm waiting for love's first kiss"

Silas is using the computer 3D model, changing limb positions to send instructions to the synth. It's moving around. He talks to the room, doesn't show his face, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Doll On A Music Box. It was one of me Mums favourites."

Mattie sits on the bench and listens to the whole track, watches Silas control his synth. When the music stops she walks over and gives his shoulder a squeeze, "Your Mum would be proud of the work you're doing these days."

"Thanks."


	43. Chapter 43

"Hi Teeny, when did you get back?"

"Susan's Mum dropped us back ten minutes ago."

"Good swimming lesson?"

"Yes. Afterwards I showed some of the new girls in our class how to do Mia's dolphin moves. What's wrong with her? And who's the very white man in the kitchen?"

"Mia's file system is corrupted. We're going to be working on her soon, we want to fix Fred first incase we need his help. What did you mean by very white?"

"His hands. They look horrible!"

Mattie gives Leo a puzzled look and heads for the kitchen. Hobb is where they'd left him, only his lap and feet are covered by a duvet. "How would someone know he was getting cold, his mouth is covered?" she looks at his hands, resting on his lap, frowns, something didn't look right. She pokes him in the shoulder, there's no response. "Is he sleeping?"

She removes the bag and gasps. "Frigging hell! He's dead!"

They look at the horrified expression now stuck on the man's ghostly white face. His eyes were saying scream.

Leo looks below the chair. "I think you both might want to go to the garage while I move something."

"No way, I want to know what's happened. But Teeny, you've already seen too much, go see the others in the garage or have a chat with Nis."

Sophie does as asked, opts to go talk to the sisters.

Mattie looks down at Leo who's now crouched down behind the chair.

He looks up at her, "From what I've just read on the web I'd say he had about seven pints of blood. It's all now in the big pan Mia used for jam making."

Mattie feels queasy but doesn't hurl. "How?"

"Remember telling Peggy the story about your father one evening? She must have rocked the chair back and lowered him down so both feet went in the pan, must have cut a vein and just left him to bleed out."

"Peggy? Your'e saying that dear sweet old lady is a cold hearted killer? Niska I could understand, but not her! How do you know it's not Nis?"

"She's not moved from Mia's side."

"You've not been in the house all the time."

"Doesn't make any difference, she's not done it."

"What do we do now? Having him tied up was bad enough."

Niska enters the kitchen, Sophie hiding behind her, not wanting to see Hobb. "Sophie told me about Hobbs hands, I asked her to be quiet for a moment and listened to your conversation. We have a solution."

"You do?" Leo frowns so hard his eyebrows come close to touching each other.

"We do. In part Sophie's idea. Arnold's been waiting for a mission. Let him carry Hobb to the station and hand over the body. Hobbs an escaped International terrorist is he not?"

Mattie looks at the man. "Greedy, power hungry, nasty sure. I could never quite accept the terrorist label. It didn't fit. But if Peggy did that to him it only proves that you never truly get to know a person. Only the things they want to reveal about themselves."

What about all the blood, "You can't hand over a dead body with no blood. People will ask questions."

Nis smiles one of her 'I'm trouble' smiles, "I've got an idea for that."

Laura closes the door to the garden and drops a basket of washing on the worktop, "I don't want any of my family being accessories to murder or after. Much as I love Peggy we can't cover this up."

Niska looks at Laura, "The police labelled my killing of that paedophile as a sex game gone wrong. Why not do something similar with Hobb?"

"That was them covering things up to protect their own interests. This would be us covering up a murder. Sorry, not in my house."

Mattie looks at Nis, "You were in the room when I put my phone down, did you see her take it?"

She glances to Leo, then back to Mattie, then the floor. "Sorry, yes. But I had no idea what she'd done to Hobb, honestly."

Leo stands close to his sister, "Share what you've seen in the last couple of hours."

"You don't trust me?"

"Actually I do. I just want to give everyone the certainty they need."

They bump heads. A moment later Leo turns to Laura, "She's telling the truth, she was sat next to Mia the whole time."

"So our murderer worked alone." Laura pulls out her phone, starts the locator app. She pinches her fingers and zooms the map. "I think she's saved us the bother."

Mattie looks at her mother, "Why d'you say that?"

Laura turns the phone for all to see. "Looks like she's gone to the police herself. As that's where your phone is Mattie."

"Crap! Peggy! I'm going back to the garage, hopefully Peggy or someone she's seeing will have an answer."

Laura looks shocked, "So you're just going to leave a dead man in my kitchen?"

"For the moment, yes."

Mattie enters the garage to hear Silas drumming the bench with a couple of pens, all sorts of synth sounds coming from the speaker. "Fred? Are you doing that?"

The music stops. "Yes. Sorry."

"Frigging hell, don't be sorry! That was brilliant!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Thank you Mattie. I've often played the piano and wished I could play the other sounds I have running around my head. Your interface is allowing me to experience being a musician in a whole new way. And being in the dark at the moment my senses are more focused on sound."

"Remember that Dirt Monkey Imperial March track you liked? You could experiment with a mix of classical and dubstep."

Danny enters the garage, "We're back. We divided and conquered."

Fred wraps up their conversation with "I will, thank you Mattie."

Mattie spins on her chair. "You got the board made Dan?"

"More like programmed. I've taken the guts from a broadband router and changed the code, made it do just what Fred needs, nothing more, give the fastest performance that you can possibly get out of the chipsets."

"Wow Danny, your coding skills are coming on then?"

"Yeah, from the silicon up. The other direction to you guys."

"Come again?"

"You write software and wonder how it can control hardware right?"

"Sure."

"I think hardware and control logic, API and then the code to get what I need done."

"No wonder you and Leo work together so well. You said divide and conquer, what did your Dad do?"

Danny smiles, "Come have a look."

~~~

"How the frig did you get windows in it so fast? And the signage?"

Danny steps to the rear doors and pulls them open. A ramp motors out and down to ground level. The back ten feet of the trailer are partitioned off, look like a mini reception.

"Wow. You've not said how."

"I called on a lot of our clients. Set them a challenge. Help in some way or bring one of their clients or other suppliers into the group and DCL would give them 60% off their next order and a mention in our hospitals literature."

"60? Danny you'll be making a loss!"

"For Fred, a worthy one. I did cap the sale value at 10K per customer. Offer ends at the end of the year. So I know my worst case loss."

Mattie walks up the ramp and crosses the room, opens the door to look further into the trailer. "Oh, so they've only done the reception?"

"Yeah! We've only been gone a short while, give us a chance!"

"Sorry!", she runs a hand over the curved wooden top to the reception desk and looks at all the fittings. "Nicely finished though."

"Even getting that done was a challenge. So many people trying to work in the same space at once. Not that I saw much of it first hand, I was in the cab for a lot of it hacking the firmware for the bridge."

"So who managed them all?"

"Dad, who else?"

"How many tradesmen?"

"Um. Carpenters did wood frame glued to trailer sides, as they got close to finishing the two sparkies put mains and data bundles in, being followed by the plasterers putting sheets of drywall up. All three groups were working together at one point. They then gave it a skim with some special white top coat so it wouldn't need painting. As they were wrapping up the window and carpet guys got to work while the sparky did final fit and the furniture people built the desk" he does a quick finger count, "Fifteen."

"I thought you were in the cab coding?"

Danny laughs, "You know me and gadgets. I had a small digital video recorder with fisheye lens hanging from the door frame. Played it back at ten times normal speed while Dad drove us back. It's in the cab if you want a look?"

Mattie flops onto the bed behind the seats. "This is rather nice! Almost as comfortable as the bed we had on the cruise!"

"If you're driving for hours on end the better the bed the faster you'll recover and be ready to drive again. Or so Dad says." he passes the video recorder, screen folded out.

Mattie presses play and has a watch. After a while she sucks her teeth, "Ouch! That must have hurt!"

"The desk top being dropped?"

"Yeah!"

"Steel toe capped shoes, didn't feel a thing. Allegedly."

She pauses and zooms, "Really? They don't look like DMs?"

"They do some that look more like trainers these days."

Danny's phone chimes. "Leo's looking for you."

"Mind if he joins us?"

"No."

~~~

Not even fifteen minutes later Danny looks at Mattie, "Shall we leave sleeping beauty here?"

Mattie looks lovingly at her Bunny, "When he was yelling at Hobb, letting rip, he called me beautiful. Would your father mind? He might be out for a while."

"It's a DCL lorry and he's on the clock, on his backside talking to your dad. So I doubt he'll mind at all .."

Mattie turns to wake Leo.

".. the more Leo sleeps .." Danny reaches over and taps her on the shoulder, ".. the more fishing gear it will buy him. What sort of boss do you think I am? Leo needs the sleep, my Dad wants the gear. Everyone wins. Do a Nis!"

"Do what?"

"Be nice!"

Mattie bursts out laughing then claps a hand over her mouth. Leo rolls onto his side, mumbles something and wraps an arm around her. She goes bug eyed, does a snort suppressing the giggles and whispers, "Now look what you've done!"

"I've done? Matilda Elster-Hawkins don't pin that one on me!"

"Making me laugh with Be Nice!"

She smiles, motions to him with her eyes, "Get on your front Leo, I'll put suntan cream on your shoulders."

Leo mumbles something about being burnt and rolls again, freeing his wife. She gently rubs his shoulders for a few seconds and slips into the front of the cab.

Mattie gently pushes the cab door closed and waits for Danny to lock the lorry. "What did you write on the note?"

"Hope you slept well, hit the horn in middle of steering wheel when up!"


	44. Chapter 44

Pete, Karen and DI Jill Baker are sat in one of the interview rooms.

Pete stops the recorder. "Thanks for being so honest. It will help you if this goes to court."

"If? But I've killed a man!"

"Yes, if. You've just become a small cog in a very big machine. I'd have preferred him alive to help get those higher up. He wasn't playing by his bosses rules. If you hadn't done what you've said I suspect they would have done something. And a lot nastier. We weren't even aware he'd escaped. Hell even the prison only worked out something was wrong when we phoned!"

"Really? That doesn't give me much faith in the prison service."

"Somehow he got a synth double to take his place. From the report we got not any old dolly, but a really convincing one, they thought it was Hobb. Either he'd been aware he might need it long ago and had it tucked away somewhere or someone made it especially for the prison break."

Karen smiles, "If recent we'll need to track down who's making the copies. We thought the only person able to do that had died."

"David Elster? Or the young lad in India?"

Pete looks stunned. "You know about David?"

"I did spend weeks with Mattie and Leo on the cruise."

"Oh, right. Why did you nick her phone?"

"I used the GPS navigation to walk here. Neither Leo nor Mattie knew what I was going to do."

"And the keys?"

"Because."

Pete picks up the bunch. Notices that the keyfob is in fact a disguised USB key. "I'll be back in a minute."

~~~

The key insertion triggers virus and malware scanning. When done it prompts Pete, asking if he wants to open the folder. "No you stupid machine I just stuck it in for the hell if it!" he shakes his head and clicks the open button then looks at the first image. It's a photo of Mattie and Leo on their honeymoon. So are all the others. He quickly pulls the key and heads back to the interview room.

The keys are put down next to Mattie's phone. Peggy waits for something to be said. Nothing is forthcoming. She rolls her eyes, "DS Pete Drummond isn't it?"

"Yeah, Pete."

"My emphasis was on the D. Detective isn't it?"

Pete looks uneasily to Karen and Jill. "Yes. Why do I get the feeling you're about to do a Miss Marple on me?"

"Because that is precisely what I am already doing. I'm a people watcher DS Drummond. I've been playing a game with people for over sixty years. My late husband told me I should take up playing poker, but using my skill for immediate financial gain felt wrong."

Pete folds his arms and leans back, somewhat arrogantly, "So what has the great Peggy Hathaway observed so far?"

"You want to know?"

"Of course."

"Okay. My first three, consider them a gift. You've been previously married, although now have strong feelings for DI Voss. You like your chips with plenty salt. You rushed through looking at the images on Mattie's key ring."

Pete blushes slightly, gives his mouth a good wipe and pushes his glasses back up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Not a problem Mrs Hathaway."

"Please, call me Peggy."

Karen puts a hand on Pete's, looks at Jill but talks to Peggy. "Was there anything significant in the photographs?"

"Why else would I bring someone else's key ring to a police station?

Karen picks them up, "Jill, can you have a look with me?"

Pete smiles nervously as the two women leave the room. Peggy smiles back. "Does DI Baker know that Karen is a synthetic?"

"No. We've kept that a secret. Mattie and her family know, I don't see it's anyone else's business."

"Despite the fact you investigate crimes relating to synthetic appliances?"

"Karen's not an appliance."

"Good. That was the response I wanted to hear. Said with conviction. You love her a lot don't you?"

"Yes. Is this at all relevant?"

"Maybe. When you love someone or something you can get a bit blinkered. When you looked at the photographs what did you see?"

"Mattie and Leo?"

"What else?"

Pete looks down at the table. "I get your point. I looked at my friends too much."

"BINGO!"

"So what did I miss?"

"Let's see if the ladies get it."

They sit in silence for a slightly uncomfortable minute.

Jill opens the door, "Pete, can Karen and I see you please? We won't be a moment Peggy if you could stay there."

~~~

Pete looks at the INTERPOL printout and photo of the honeymooners on the screen. "It does look a bit like him."

Karen hits the right arrow key.

"And that one."

Again the key is pressed.

"That's him for sure. What are the odds of him randomly being in the background in these locations?"

Karen slowly taps the key a few more times, "It doesn't look at all random to me."

Peter does his glasses push. "So what does the International Criminal Police Organization's Cyber Crime unit want him for?"

Jill takes off the top sheet to reveal a second.

"Bloody hell. That's quite a brag list. All these organisations, hacked by one man? For what?"

Karen sits on the table, looks at her partner, "Data. Anything worth a lot of money to someone. Reports, company plans, customer confidential information, programs." she puts a lot of emphasis on the last word.

"You think he might have been after Leo?"

"Possibly. Maybe whoever is at the top got fed up with Hobb and Robert's attempts and paid for the big guns? That name Robert gave us got us nowhere, maybe this is the new lead we've been wanting?"

Pete frowns and looks back to the photos, a thought at the back of his mind asking for attention. He slowly looks through them all, zooms into many. "The resolution isn't high enough to say with total certainty, but I'd bet the man watching Mattie and Leo was being watched himself. Look. Here, here, here. And that one. Here too. Same height and build each time. Same white hair."

"You think Peggy was on to him?"

"Maybe. One way to find out."

~~~

"Oh my goodness. Had I known I would have alerted the ships security team. Do you think they'd been in danger? He didn't carry any concealed weapons."

"That's the point of a concealed weapon, it can't be seen!"

"Not directly no. But indirectly, through the persons behaviour, movement, how their clothes flow, or rather then don't. I was a dancer and observer for many years, I know the signs. Could they have been in danger for other reasons?"

Pete gives her a sceptical look. "We don't know. Possibly. What's your memory like, can you recall any details that might be relevant?"

"Oh the grey stuff up here still works dear. It might be slowing down slightly but it's still good." Peggy closes her eyes, thinks for a second about Fred shouting that morning and turns her attention to her last cruise. "He was about six foot one. Very slim, always well turned out. He always wore a gold watch on his left hand, signed bills with the same. He walked very smoothly, by that I mean with minimal noise. Suspect he would make a good dancer. He had what I think was a pocket computer. I'm no good with such things, only the iPad Mattie got me. It was a bit bigger than her phone, but opened up to be a small screen and keyboard. I spotted him using it on three occasions when closest to Leo." she opens her eyes, "Any of that of use? I can probably think of more given a few minutes."

Karen looks at Peggy with one of her blank serious stares, "Knowing what this man does I suspect he was running a networked vulnerability scan on the WiFi, trying to find Leo and any way in that wouldn't need physical contact."

Pete frowns, "Getting the consciousness program without detection would have paid him well I'm sure. I want to talk to Leo."

Jill goes to get up, "I'll have him brought in."

Pete puts up a hand, "No! If we want his co-op we go to him. All four of us"


	45. Chapter 45

Pete waits patiently for someone to answer the door. Nobody does. He stares at the large lorry, "DCL Mobile Hospital Services? Now what's he up to? And why something as long as that? It's got to be what, 17 meters?"

Karen turns to see, "18.5."

Jill gives her a questioning look.

"I'm good at heights and lengths."

Pete presses the door bell again.

"How?"

"Easy, find something you know the size of, work out how many times it fits in something else."

Peter pushes the door bell again and calls out, "ANYONE IN?"

Peggy adjusts her cardigan, "I think they might all be in the garage."

"Why would they be in there?"

"Fixing Fred. He had issues after Hobb used his contraption."

Pete walks around the side of the house, followed by the women.

There's a knock at the door, Laura spins around in her chair, "Nobody in our group knocks like.."

Joe shakes his head, "Yes he does, remember when Pete was banging on the front door when Hobb took Karen? That's the same pattern just quieter."

Laura gives him a look of amazement. She didn't think her husband paid attention to the little details like that. She goes to the door to answer it, giving him a welcome before he's even seen, "Come in Pete."

"Hello Laura, I've got a few friends and colleagues with me."

Mattie jumps up and gives Peggy a hug, "What were you thinking!"

"You told me about two kidnappings, Leo and his four siblings, then Karen. Then he comes to your parents house with a bomb having escaped prison. Men like that can't be allowed to carry on with their path of destruction. Look what he did to Mia and Fred."

Laura looks at Pete and Karen, "Have you charged her yet?"

"Not yet. Don't know if we will. Peggy's given us some information that may help us find the man, or woman, at the top of this mess."

The horn on the lorry sounds, "Danny, can I have the keys please?"

Keys caught she turns back to Pete. "Back in a tick."

~~~

Mattie looks up at the driver side window, "Hi sleepy head, had a good rest?"

Leo smiles and nods. "Bathroom upgraded, wardrobe built, next I want to replace our beds. Why are Karen and Pete here?"

"How did you know?"

"That's the reg plate I've seen when Karen's driven Pete over before."

"Yeah they're in the garage with another police woman and Peggy."

~~~

"Leo, Mattie, can we have a word in private?"

Mattie nods, "Sure, come next door, but only if Mum can come too."

"Okay."

~~~

Karen likes what she sees in the living room. "They're really nice prints. I didn't expect to see myself and Pete on that LOVE creation."

Jill throws a suspicious glance. Mattie spots it, "Our extended family. Friends that help each other. We got to know Karen and Pete when we had the Hobb agro."

Karen shows Leo the printout's first sheet. "Do you recall seeing this man on your cruise?"

Leo looks at the photofit profile and closes his eyes. Twenty seconds later he opens them and looks at Mattie with a quizzical frown. "Yes. I'd seen him a few times but not noticed him if you know what I mean. Now you ask it's strange that he got a table so close to us each time. Was he a reporter or private detective?"

"Neither. Expert hacker"

Mattie curses and sighs. "Will this ever stop?"

Karen nods, "We really hope so. The MUS may have been just the start of something bigger. We need to stop it as soon as possible."

Jill crosses her arms, leans back against the wall, "From what Peggy has said we think he was trying a network scan to see if he could hack Leo."

"But Leo would need his WiFi enabled to get ... Oh frig."

Leo creases his brow, "What?"

"Some of the things you did might have made it clear when you were using WiFi. The ship announcements for example?"

Leo smiles, "Don't worry. We don't have any open ports unless we specifically want them to be."

"What about when you head bump?"

"Then, sure."

"Right, back to the garage!"

"Why?"

"I'm going to nmap you!"

"Really? My wife wants to vulnerability scan me??"

"I know all about your human vulnerabilities, I want to know about your digital side!"

~~~

They explain to Silas what they want to do, have him sit at Mattie's Slate.

"Okay, I'm going to do something with Leo, when I say Go hit the return key." she tries to empty her mind and communicate with her husband. "Go." the shared experience doesn't happen, maybe she's not tired enough, head too full of issues. "Did it report anything?

"No ports open."

Mattie pulls her head back and looks her husband in the eyes. "You were doing the normal bump thing?"

"Yes. But it's like the song, receive and transmit. We receive but only transmit an acknowledgment if the received data is good. So your scanner would think the port inactive."

"And if someone faked the right data to send you?"

"I'd then know about it."

"They couldn't go unnoticed?"

"It would be like me taking your hand and giving it a firm handshake. It can't go unnoticed."

"Even if you were distracted?"

"I don't think so. No."

"But you don't know for sure?"

"No."

Jill stops leaning against the garage wall, "So worst case he either stole thoughts or programming from you. Or planted a virus while you were concentrating on other things?"

Leo's face drops.

"I could try and steel your thoughts?"

Pete looks around the room, confused as to who had just spoken. "Was that Fred?"

"Hello Pete. Yes, it's Fred. I'm communicating through the microphone and speakers on the bench."

Leo repeats the bump and Fred tries hard to steel thoughts and code. He confirms that Leo is secure.

"What's the dolly for?"

Mattie explains the plan. "We were just about to connect it all up and let Fred do an initial test. Want to watch?"

Pete shakes his head, "No thanks, I want to know Fred as Fred, coming Karen?"

Jill follows them out of the garage, just as she's passing through the door she turns to Peggy, "No leaving the area without informing us of your travel plans Mrs Hathaway."

~~~

The group watch Mattie, Silas and Leo get everything ready. The bridges first aerial is strapped around Fred's head.

"Fred?"

"Yes Mattie."

"Everything's connected, are you running the new code?"

"Just starting it now.."

The surrogate synth hands moves it's fingers, curls then straightens them. It raises it's arms and does a wiggle.

"Everything okay Fred?"

The synth turns it's head to Mattie and smiles, "Yes Mattie, there's a tiny delay as we expected but everything is fine. She's got lovely hands and skin tone, like a light coffee colour." The synth does a wiggle and bit of a dance.

Leo laughs, "Now you're just showing off!"

"On the contrary, I'm working out the dynamics of my temporary body, how it moves. The position of my hands will be a complex function based on where the feet are planted, the length of each limb, the angle of every joint."

Mattie grins, "You talking through her voice will take some getting used to. She's got an interesting one, can't place it. What's her name by the way Silas?"

"No idea, you'll have to give her one."

"Gesha!" says Fred quickly.

"Geisha?"

"Drop the i, it's a coffee variety."

"You want to name her after a type of coffee?"

"Why not?"

"Ok, Gesha it is."

Toby looks Gesha up and down, "If it was human I'd say she had one European parent and one African. Especially with that 'fro."

Fred reaches up to feel the synths hair, there's a lot of it. "This is a strange experience." he goes to feel her face but at the last moment stops before contact. "I think I better stop thinking about Gesha before I get too attached."

"Fred?"

"Yes Mattie."

"I wouldn't be worried about that. Think you'll be falling for her when you've got the fuses fixed. She's frigging gorgeous."

"Still, best no more distractions for the moment."

She spots Toby smirking, "No knob cock, I'm not going bi."

"You want to slap her chops, admit it!"

"No! You men and liking lesbians!"

"Eww, if you think I'm fantasising over my own sister getting it off with another woman you're mistaken!"

Leo spins 180 and kicks away, getting his chair between them both, the wheels making a racket on the rough garage floor. "Can we focus on Fred please?" a moment later he spins a full 360, says quietly, "Might need some PTSD treatment to erase that thought."

"Eh? What thought?"

"Two Mattie's locked in an embrace."

"Frigging hell Leo! Not you too!"

Toby grimaces the mental image already formed, "Do you mind!"

"You bloody started it you cock!"

Fred waves arms around, "Can we drop all thoughts of people or synths making out with each other or themselves for a few minutes PLEASE!"

Mattie throws a spare patch cable at Toby, "Yeah, shut it Obi Wang!"

There's a cough from the other end of the garage.

Mattie turns to see Peggy and her parents looking at her in quite an amused way. "WHAT?"

The long bridge wire is carefully reached for and held between thumb and finger. Gesha walks around the back of Fred and smiles, "I've never seen the back of my own head before."

"Lap it up Freddie, none of us will get the chance!"

Toby looks at his sister, "Um, wasn't sure when to say this earlier, didn't want you distracted. Holly-Anne's seen a certain someone at the store with his Mum and synth."

Mattie sits and stares at her brother. "Male synth owner? That's what, like half the synth owning population? Why is this relevant it's ... Oh crap. It's Harun isn't it?"

Toby reads out the message on the phone, 'Hi Obi, I called out Mattie three times and wondered why she was blanking me, then this Indian man and his mother walk up to her and the three of them go to a checkout. Mattie's double is in the UK!'

Leo hides his face, the mental image he'd had a moment ago resurfacing. One Mattie was enough, two would in all likelihood be too much. With all the brain surgery he'd had he knew blood pressure was an issue. He'd had some killer pains in the head in the past, had researched why. He new overexertion or other activities that spiked his blood pressure could be a big problem. He'd kept the issue to himself, not even Max knew, who he confided in the most when it came to certain health issues. People worrying that an aneurysm could lead to fatal bleeding in the head might lead to them being over protective. And that was the last thing he wanted, being wrapped in cotton wool. The run with Mattie in Antigua had given him pain for a brief moment, relieved when he'd stopped running and dived on top of the inflatables. She'd said she didn't want a piggyback like that again, for other reasons. He'd promised not to keep secrets. And here he was still breaking promises again. He'd not do a run like that again, but for his own reasons.

"Leo? You with us?"

"Sorry?"

"You zoned out for a bit, mind elsewhere?"

"Yeah, was thinking about some issues."

"Fred was telling us about the support he wants built to rest his head and core on during the procedure."

"Sorry, missed it."

Gesha, Fred, says not to worry, Joe's got it in hand.

Mattie is handed her phone by Peggy, "Sorry, borrowed this earlier for GPS navigation. Call Pete, see if he can come back."

"Why?"

"It just occurred to me, maybe Harun was the one that made the Hobb copy?"

"Hobb COPY?!"

Mattie calls him. "He's dropping Jill at the station, will be back with Karen in under an hour."

While Fred waits for Joe's DIY frame he practices soldering on spare boards Silas has with him. Silas is impressed with the quality of Fred's work. Gesha turns to him and smiles, "We do have a slight advantage over you, our eyes can see a far wider spectrum than human eyes. If we enable the control signals in the right combinations."

Silas rubs his chin, thinking, "I've read every synth manual there is, C series all the way to current models. All the engineer notes I can get my hands on. Not once did I see that documented."

"It's like overclocking CPU, not official."

Mattie joins in, "Not seen it on the hacker forums either. What does it do?"

"It lets me see temperatures."

"So you don't overheat things when you solder?"

"Things like that, yes."

"What else?"

"IF I had it enabled, which I don't do unless I'm doing a job like this, I could tell when you get a hot flush even if your skin colour didn't fluctuate."

"Really? How good is the sensitivity?"

"Enough to know when it's your time of the month."

"Fred!"

"You did ask. Synthetics don't have the ability to bear children, so we don't have the baggage that goes with it."

Laura gets up and walks over to the synth, "Gesha, sorry, Fred, can you tell it's coming even before we've noticed it?"

"I believe I could. Would that be of use?"

"My God yes! Nothing worse than being caught out by bad period pains!"

"Mum!"

"Toby, it's not something that should be hidden behind closed doors. If every month you had a whole day when you felt like you'd been kicked in the balls you'd expect some sympathy."

"Put like that.."

"Exactly."

Gesha turns to Mattie, "I could switch to wider spectrum view for short a duration at regular intervals if a warning could help?"

"Is that Gesha or Fred talking?"

Gesha freezes.

"Fred?"

There's zero movement.

"Fred?"

Gesha turns to Silas, "Gesha's processing of thought data is paused while I use the link isn't it?"

"Yes, she won't remember a thing, her mind is on hold while it's running."

"Good"

"Any particular reason?"

"I want Leo to give her the program when we're done."

"Oh, so she's not just a loner then?"

"Name your price."

"She's yours Fred, assuming she wants you too."

"And she definitely won't remember any of this?"

"Na, last she'll recall is being in the front window of the shop."

Joe brings his handy work into the garage. Gesha asks Joe, Toby and Leo to help pick up Fred and position him on the support. "This will do fine. Thank you Joe. Can we get everything to the trailer please? And the temperature down as low as it will go."

~~~

Danny and his father go to the cab and get the systems running. Within twenty minutes it already close to zero, a few more and frost forms on the inside of the windows. Joe and Silas help carry Max up the ramp into the reception. Joe returns to the garage and gets the frame.

Soon after Max is inside the main part of the trailer propped up on it. "Thank you. I'm good from here. Anyone that doesn't want to see me open my head up should leave now."

Danny looks at the inactive Fred, "I'm staying."

Silas gives a "Me too, seen plenty synth innards, not an issue."

Everyone else heads back to the house. Soon after there's a nock on the reception door, Danny opens it to see Laura.

"You forgot these", she hands over a pile of coats, hats, gloves and scarf.

"Thanks Mrs H! Might help, don't want to get frozen stiff in here!", his breath condensing into little clouds in the cold.


	46. Chapter 46

Sophie is watching a rerun of the Sound of Music Live with Nis, Odi has returned from house viewing and seeing an agent, is sat on the floor, his back against the sofa. Mia is still sat bolt upright, still looking vacantly across the room at nothing.

"Hi Teeny, any good?"

"Yes, this lady is really really good!"

A channel menu pops up on the screen.

"DAD!"

"Don't panic, I'm just seeing when it finishes!"

Leo does his best to not think about what might happen next with Mia. Laura had given him chapter and verse on not worrying about things he couldn't control. He'd lost her once before, got her back thanks to Mattie's persistence. Hopefully Silas's suspicions were right and that was the only problem, he'd see her again soon.

There's a knock on the front door, Joe goes to answer.

"Hi Pete, Karen, come in. Most of the gang are in the living room."

"How's Fred getting on?"

"Don't know yet, waiting for an update."

After a brief chat about the state of the siblings Pete turns to see the dead Hobb, walks over to take a look. A few minutes later he returns, "Good job Karen wasn't here at the time or I'd have killed him myself. Do you know where we can find this Harun chap Mattie?"

Sophie gives him a look. Pete gives his apologies for interrupting her TV, only to get a second look, so motions towards the kitchen, "Mattie?"

"You said on the phone that this Harun guy was back in the UK, that Peggy thought he might have created the Hobb lookalike. Where can we find him?"

"At his parents I'm guessing. I can come with you if you want?"

Karen feels Pete is about to object, gets a response out fast, "Please. He might clam up if it's just us two."

~~~

Harun's mother is surprised to see Mattie, "The heartbreaker. I suppose you better come in."

"We're on official police business Mrs Khan. Is your husband in?"

"No, he's at work. What's this about?"

"Making illegal copies of living humans in the form of custom Persona Synthetics. As I suspect you already know."

"So he made a copy of the girl, so what? There are many who say they've found a synth that looks a bit like them."

Mattie bites her lip, lets Pete continue.

"A BIT? Are you trying to play dumb Mrs Khan, that synth is an EXACT copy of Matilda .. Mattie. Where is your son?"

"Upstairs."

Karen steps forward, "Ask him to come downstairs please. With the synth."

She does as asked.

Mattie watches them come down the steps, sees Harun but pays more attention to the synth. "Well, this is more than a bit weird. So what did he call you?"

"Matia, Spanish origin, means Gift of God."

"So he can call you Mati? Figures. God awful amount of law breaking, possibly copyright infringement too."

Harun laughs, "Nobody's look is copyrighted!"

"Fancy going up against my Mum in a test lawsuit? Her firm would flatten you!"

"You don't have the money to fight me!"

"Oh really? Want to test that thought?"

Pete intervenes, "Mattie, we want his help, back off a bit."

The synth smiles, "Matilda, name of German origin meaning Battle Mighty."

Pete pushes his glasses, "That's her alright."

Harun is questioned about the work he's been doing. He took a commission to make the Hobb copy while in India, did a lot of the design out there, flew back to the UK to do the build.

Pete looks around the entrance hall, wishing there was something to sit on, "Did you meet the contact in person?"

"When it came to the final payment on delivery, yes."

"How did he pay you?"

"Cash."

"Untraceable. Can you remember his face?"

"Is that a serious question?"

"Yeah."

"I could draw him with my eyes shut."

"Go on then."

~~~

Mattie is amazed at his drawing skills.

"Who new I'd actually be good at something? Finally proved my father wrong."

"I'm still a bit pissed that you copied me!"

"I loved you, couldn't get you off my mind."

"Loved? I thought it was just a crush?"

"No."

Pete leans forward, "Who else have you copied illegally?"

"Apart from Mattie and Hobb? Nobody. The rest have all been commissioned by the individuals themselves."

Pete can't believe what he's just heard. "You what? Who's asked for that?!"

"I'm sure they'd lynch me for breaking confidentiality agreements if I gave names. Quite a few ageing rock stars that want tour revenues but want to avoid things like hip surgery. They must talk to each other as soon after I'd done the first I got three more orders."

"Mick Jagger old or younger?"

"I've already said as much as I'm going to say."

"If any of them commit a crime you'll be saying more don't worry."

Karen finishes questioning Mrs Khan and joins the others at the table. "I know that face! He's the junior surgeon that worked in Hobbs team!"

"Can't be him."

"Why not? The perfect place to hide. In the open, free to overhear all sorts of conversations. In a position to claim he was a junior just following orders."

Mattie looks across at Pete, "Like Keyser Sois in The Usual Suspects. As Karen says, it's perfect!"

Pete pulls out his phone, "Time to call in a load of favours. Won't have many left if this doesn't work." he calls one of the Johnsons, "Hi, how's the Mrs, baby dropped yet? Blimey, best of luck mate! Yeah, you'll need it!" he turns to Karen and mouths 'Twins!', "Got a question for you. Does your pal still work in HMPS? Yes, Hobb's broken out, switched places with a synth copy. Still investigating. Yes. We need the synth for questioning. Yes. No. Not to the station. She is as it happens. Yes I know it does. No, if anyone wants any hides they can have mine. Yes. I'll txt you the address. Thanks. Owe you several." he hangs up an looks at Mattie, "He says Hi, the lads were wondering how you and Leo were, if everything had settled down. He's going to call in some of his own favours, get G3 to bring the copy here."

Mrs Khan looks uncomfortable, "You're asking for one of those white prisoner lorries to come here?"

"Would you rather I handcuffed your son and took him to the station?"

"No."

"Well then, copy coming here it is. I'll have my coffee white no sugar thanks."

"I didn't offer."

"I know."

Mrs Khan spends her time nervously pacing around the front of the house curtain twitching.

"Mother! If anyone sees the lorry then they see the lorry. All your moving from window to window won't change anything."

Matia sits down at the table with Harun, Pete, Karen and Mattie. She sits in silence watching the conversation. Harun explains how his drawings had led to some temporary work at a Persona India franchise. It had been noticed by a senior manager resulting in a full time place in the design department. He'd been given access to all systems. He designed Matia in his spare time, the office being open twenty four hours a day to those that wanted to work. 

Mattie shifts in her chair, watches the synth out of the corner of her eye.

Harun goes on to tell them about the call he'd received, photographs he'd been sent. And cash. Lots of it. All by courier. Then the meeting in London.

Mattie shifts and changes her hand position on the table.

It had taken a bit of work to get the London Persona people to accept him into their design team. One fortunate day he'd been on the shop floor when the rock star customer had half jokingly said he wanted a copy to perform his most physical numbers. The manager immediately saw pound signs and jumped at Harun's offer to copy the man. That was his ticket to full system access.

Mattie moves again. "What the HELL have you told this thing?"

Harun looks at Mattie, shocked and confused by her outburst. "What are you on about?"

"It, she, Matia, is copying my moves!"

"I did design her to be like you."

"You've taken things too far. So far you're practically coming back around the other frigging side!"

"Ok, ok, Matia, cease program action copy immediately please."

"Okay Harun, program stopped."

"You had a program specifically for copying my moves? You bastard!"

"Yes, I'm sorry!" Harun asks Matia to leave the room.

The door bell chimes. Mrs Khan comes to the table, "Your friends are here."

Harun lets them in, his mother going up to her room. Karen explains the situation to the prison transport guard and asks that they leave the synth in their custody. After a few phone calls Karen signs for its release.

With them gone Harun gets his laptop and runs some diagnostics. The synth was awake when Hobb was on the phone exchanging clothes with him. "The call was made at 15:42:03.582."

Karen questions the synth, "How were the two of you allowed to go somewhere in private?"

"We weren't, some of the other inmates staged a group fight to distract the guards, started throwing tables and chairs. We ducked down and changed on the floor."

"How did they not spot that you looked alike?"

"I had a full false beard and wig. Exchanged with Hobb."

Harun shifts uneasily, "Sorry, I designed that too."

Pete looks at Karen, "Nobody knows what's gone down at the Hawkins house, I say we get Hobb2 to visit the lab wearing a wire, what do you think?"

"Having seen Fred I think we can go one better than a microphone. Can we head back? And how about giving it the program?"

~~~

Leo shakes his head, "I gave our program to Fred's Gesha, willingly. But a copy of Hobb? Sorry, that's not something I want to do. Give him the code Silas had Sandra running."

"Isn't she fully conscious?"

"She is now, was running something that faked it very well before that"


	47. Chapter 47

Danny comes into the living room, clapping his hands, trying to get some warmth back into his fingers. "Fred is done, Silas is helping him walk back into the garage. He's a bit disoriented from being in Gesha's body for so long."

They all head there, leaving Mia alone on the sofa."

Sophie gives a "Wow, she's REALLY pretty!"

Mattie frowns, had Persona made a synth anyone could really call ugly? If so, why?

Leo gives Gesha their program and she powers up for the first time with full consciousness. "Hello handsome!"

Fred realises her gaze is not on him and turns to see Max smiling back at her. He quietly gets up and walks out of the garage, ignoring everything that is now being hurriedly said.

Mattie rushes after him, catches up just as he's about to enter the house, "Fred, wait!"

"My fluid pump is crushed. I can't stay!"

"But Fred, she only called Max that as she doesn't know any of our names yet! She said hello to him first as he was grinning like a school boy, happy for you! You didn't give her a chance. She's upset you walked out and is asking why her LOVE did that!"

"Why would she call me 'her love'?"

"She was aware of the lorry trailer, the garage, everyone around her from the moment you stopped the software link! You were still attached physically by the bridge wires. With all the tools around she's worked out what had gone on. She's smart! Now get back in there before I frigging kick you back in!"

Fred smiles, "Thank you Mattie, I'm lucky to have a friend like you."

For the first time she's aware of he gives a hug that feels really human. "Yes, you are, now go on, get back in there before I kick you!"

Fred laughs, "I'm going, I'm going!"

Before he can get to Gesha he's met by a smiling Max, his arms outstretched, "I'm so happy for you brother!"

Mattie had seen Mia hug her siblings, it was the first time she'd seen the two brothers be that close, only head bumps before, not a full on man hug.

Max steps back and holds his brother by the shoulders, "I'm sorry for my earlier actions, I reacted without thinking properly."

Fred gives him one of his warmest smiles, "The humans are rubbing off on you brother. Apology accepted. Now go say hello to Gesha."

Mattie had always thought of Fred as one of the stiffer siblings. Even with their training and power rucksack he still moved in a slightly conservative way. Not now though. He had a spring in his step, a whole new swagger.

Fred gently holds her hands in his, thanks her for saving him. She thanks them all for giving her a new life. They head bump and Gesha gently rubs the back of Fred's neck. "So you like my coffee colour?"

"I do."

"I'll never taste and appreciate it like a human but I like rich chocolate."

Fred smiles, liking the association.

Nis looks overjoyed for them both, "Fred, Gesha, you can have our room, Odi has found us a house of our own. The small one at the far end of the road. The paperwork's being done."

Sophie looks a little sad, "Do you have to move? We'll miss you."

"Oh we'll be around during the day, we just want some privacy in the evenings."

Sophie gives Nis a "Yay!" and hug.

Mattie frowns, "I know Fred will tell me it's physically impossible for you but I SWEAR I just saw Odi blush! Very subtle, but I'm sure I didn't imagine it!"

Odi looks at the floor, a little embarrassed. "My fluid pump did spin up a lot just then, maybe you did see a change."

Nis turns and grabs his head, pushes it back and gives him a passionate kiss.

Toby laughs, "Get a room! Or house!"

Nis raises a leg and kicks a chair, sending it wheeling towards him.

Leo looks at Fred and Silas, "If you're ready, can we go work on Mia please?"

~~~

Mattie plugs her Slate into Mia, hands it to Silas.

"Where's her root code backup?"

"I copied it from the DVD to d:\backups"

Silas starts a terminal session and types a few commands she'd not seen before. She looks at Leo, then back to the screen, "What do they do? Not seen those before."

"No posting them to headcrack please. They're engineering mode commands that even a lot of Persona staff don't know."

"Then how did you come by them?"

"A old customer. I promised him I'd never reveal him as the source, no matter what."

"Old as in age or length of time you knew him?"

Her question is ignored. "Ok, two chin presses please."

Mia makes the usual power down and power up noises.

Silas types another command and looks at Leo, "I've backed up the current one, the backup file allocation table is copying over, won't be long. About the commands, when I next talk to him I'll ask if he minds me giving them to you."

"Thanks."

Silas sighs softly to himself, it was a bit of a fib as sadly that day could never come. He crosses his fingers. "Two more chin presses please."

Mia boots and smiles, "Hello." a puzzled look comes over her face, "I know who you all are, but I can't remember your names?"

Laura sips some coffee and smiles, "If that's the extent of the damage it's easily fixed."

Sophie beams, "I can go through the photo album and tell you who's who. I'm Sophie. You used to call me Little Mouse."

"Because of your favourite book. I remembered the why, just not the what. Thank you Sophie."

Mia looks at her brothers, "I know who you three are, but your names are a mystery."

"I'm Leo."

"Fred."

"Max."

The rest of the family introduce themselves.

Leo wipes a tear from his eye and gives Mia a hug. He turns to Mattie, "I think we need to pay the lads a visit."

"The lads?"

"Yeah, encrypted backups. That was too close." he turns to Silas, "Many thanks Silas, without your help I'd have lost her. I owe you one."

"Don't worry about it, Sandra is all I need, thanks. Consider us even. Which reminds me, she was supposed to be on her way over in a cab ages ago, probably distracted by more clothes shopping. I better find out where she's got to."

Mia stands up and gives him a hug, "Thank you Silas, it appears I owe you my thanks. What happened?"

"You don't know?"

"I remember getting into a car with Niska. Then waking on the sofa a moment ago."

Mattie folds her arms, "The man who owned the car was the cause of your memory loss. He won't be trouble any more."

"Why is that?"

"He's dead."

"Did he have a fatal accident?"

"Of sorts, yes."

Mattie asks Mia to sit down and not turn her head. She looks at Pete, "Can your friends help move the you know what?"

Pete agrees, turns to Silas, "Before you go can we have a quick chat about your custom mods for this copy?"

~~~

Mattie pulls the covers up high, wriggles closer to Leo, "You're lovely and warm. What have you been up to?"

"Just thinking about everything that happened today. And searching the web for lyrics. Do you know about Aerosmith?"

"Year, Dad has some of their CDs."

"Love In An Elevator?"

"Pretty sure he's got that one."

"Love in an elevator, Livin' it up when I'm goin' down. Love in an elevator, Lovin' it up 'til I hit the ground. It wasn't the sort of song I was looking for but I like it."

"Sorry, only stairs here. And before you even think to ask, No, I don't fancy getting any carpet burns."

"Carpet burns?"

"Think through that book you got, I'm sure you'll work it out."


	48. Chapter 48

Mattie wakes to find Leo's side of the bed empty. She runs a hand across it, it's cold. "Teddy, what time is it?" there's no reply, "Frigging bear, never there when you want it!" the covers are pulled up and over her head, she keeps still listening to the silence. She recalled an old Dr Who episode when the Doctor said humans filter out the sound of their own heartbeat. She could hear hers fine. If she concentrated.

The silence is broken by the sound of glasses gently clinking together. She throws back the covers to see Leo entering the bedroom with a tray.

"I think I've perfected the ratio of vinegar to water for the eggs, feeling hungry?"

"That smells wonderful!"

"Mia's taught me how to make bread, so it's all fresh. Well apart from the orange juice. But it's not from concentrate."

Leo carefully gets onto the bed and deftly swings down the long tray's legs, sits next to Mattie. He raises a glass, "Here's to Christmas shopping survival."

Mattie lifts hers and does a clink, "SISO style"

"SISO?"

"Steam in Steam out."

Leo laughs, "Only going for things on our list then?"

"Too right! I hate shopping when it's like that, Sophie loves it. No idea why."

~~~

Monday morning Mattie is surprised to see Sophie at home, "Hello Teeny, no school today?"

"We broke up last week remember?"

"Sorry, so you did, losing track of what day it is."

"It's Monday."

"I knew that. Just not which Monday. Where do the weekends go?"

"Faster when you're busy? The Monday a week before Christmas. Only one week!"

~~~

Mattie drives over to Angel Hosting taking Leo, Danny and Mia.

"Hi Tim, Si, I've got a couple of friends I'd like you to meet. This is Mia and Danny."

Tim takes a glance at their autographed photo, Mia can be seen behind Mattie and Leo with a young girl in her arms. He gets up to shake Mia's hand, "Lovely to meet you Mia. Si, this is one of the ladies that was at Mattie's award ceremony."

Si puts down his tools, wipes his hands on the back of his trousers, shakes her hand.

Mia looks at the shine left on her skin.

He apologises, "Sorry, missed a bit, it's CPU grease, we're upgrading some of the servers to use water cooling."

"That's not a problem, it's quite at home on me."

Si gives her a funny look. "Why would you say that? Do you repair computers? We could do with an extra pair of hands if you do."

"No, I don't repair them, I have friends fix my computer issues. It's related though, I'm here to talk to you about your encrypted backup service."

Mattie, Leo and Dan exchange glances, wondering how long it will take the penny to drop. Mia smiles. Having seen some of the glances she realises this has turned into a game of sorts. She leans forward and places her elbows on the desk's shelf, rests her head very carefully in her hands, weight on her jaw not chin, not wanting to power off and spoil the fun. She tries some of the flirty looks she'd seen her sister use to great effect. Si doesn't respond much but Tim's heart rate jumps significantly. She holds eye contact with him and smiles, "Ask away."

Tim looks a little flustered, "Ok, what are you going to back up?"

"My data."

"I'd hope it was yours, not someone else's. Your online presence? Facebook, etc?"

"No, My personal files."

Tim closes his eyes, trying to think things through, "You don't repair computers but say CPU grease is 'quite at home' on you. Are you a manufacturer? Is it designs?"

"No, not a manufacturer. I share my thoughts often. I need to back them up."

"You're a technology blogger!"

"No. Interesting guess though." she flutters her eyes at him getting a noticeable temperature rise.

"You're an IT journalist?"

"I use a lot of technology every second of the day, but no. I could write about my many adventures and parties, family, cakes I've made. Thanks for the idea, that would be fun."

"You like a bit of fun?"

"More than a bit." she turns, still on her elbows, motions to the coffee table with it's magazines, "Especially fast cars, not tried a motorbike yet. I think I'd look good in tight black leathers" she turns back and blows him a kiss. And thinks to herself that if he were a synth he might have just blown a fuse. "Are you okay Tim, you're looking a bit .. uncomfortable?"

"Er, fine thanks." he starts to blush a little. He looks at Si, "I'm confused mate, not enough sleep last night doing that 2AM emergency server fix. Are you following this?"

"Not really, was up playing Warcraft, must stop doing that." Si yawns.

Tim looks back to Mia, "Let's come at this from another angle."

Mia crosses her legs, straightens them and rocks her hips from side to side.

"Jesus." Tim looks away, his jeans feeling a bit tight. "The data you want backed up, it's hosted in Europe?"

"You could say that, yes, closer."

"UK?"

"Yes, getting warmer."

"London?"

"You're getting really hot". She sees for Tim that was quite literally. And in one place more than anywhere else.

"Within a mile of here?"

"Yes."

Tim looks at his partner, "We don't have any new competition do we? Arc shut down months ago."

Si shakes his head and shrugs.

"You say it's hosted. But close by. Are you carrying the data with you?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what we mean by hosted?"

"I hope so. What's your definition?"

"The data has to be online and accessible over a network."

"Leo could access data from it right now over WiFi if he wanted. So by your definition it's hosted."

Tim looks confused. "Sorry, being thick, something not adding up. If you could fill in a customer sign up form please, name, address.. ", he pauses for a moment, ".. and phone number."

Mia gives him a warm smile, "Would you like my phone number Tim?"

"That's what I just said."

"No, not for Angel Tim, would YOU like it?"

He feels quite embarrassed, being watched by the others. He exhales through slightly puckered lips, feeling like he was about to do something major. Like be the first to split the atom or step on the moon. There's a tiny tremble in his voice, "Don't ask, don't get. So yes. Please."

Mia hands over the completed form, "Copy the number into your phone before you forget."

"Trust me, that's one thing I'd not forget!" he does so, hands visibly shaking. "Thanks. So what's the media?"

"Solid State Drives."

"Capacity?"

"That I want backed up? Eight hundred terabytes for a full backup. A daily delta of maybe 3 terabytes?"

"That much? We'll have to dedicate resources to you. Can you show me the drives, I'm guessing they're in your rucksack? What do you have them connected to?" Tim holds out a hand.

Mia holds his hand, "No. The bag only has batteries and a power regulator."

Tim shakes his head, "Sorry, need more coffee, my brain is frazzled, can't think straight today."

"So was mine."

"Sorry?"

"Mine was in a bad way too. Or so I'm told, I don't remember any of it."

Si goes to the coffee table, returns to their side of the desk and drops a copy of WIRED, motions to it.

Tim reads the cover, sees the main news story, "Ah! New sub-dermal implant?"

"Not .. quite."

Tim shakes his head, "Si, got any of the strong stuff left?" he looks at Mia, "Sorry, too tired to play this game, can you show me the storage or the computer you use to access it?"

Mia gives him another smile to get his heart racing, licks the front of her teeth, "You're looking at her."

Tim shake his head rapidly as if trying to shake cobwebs from his mind, "I must be hearing things. What did you say?"

"I am one."

"You what?!"

"Computer."

Mattie bursts out laughing, "Sorry Tim, that was painfully long. Mia's a synth."

"Fuck me!"

Mia gives Tim a cheeky smile, "I can if you'd like?"

"What? Oh God!". He flops into a chair.

Both Mattie and Leo are looking shocked.

Mattie frowns, "Mia! What's come over you?"

"I've almost died twice already. I don't want to leave this world without having a bit of fun."

Leo looks a little hurt by her words, "We've had fun haven't we Mia? Our family?"

"Yes, we have, but I'm talking about the sort of fun a couple have in private. Like you and Mattie."

"Oh, that sort."

Tim looks distant, "Is this really happening?"

"The file you recovered for Mattie, that was a copy of my root code from a while ago. It saved my life. Thank you."

Tim is speechless.

Danny puts a couple of business cards on the table. "I'm Danny of DCL, I have a proposition for you."

Mia looks at Tim, "My being a synthetic, does it change how you feel about me?"

Tim slowly nods his head, mind elsewhere, thinking, "Yes."

"Oh."

"Not in a negative way, I'm even more curious about you. As long as you don't go all Ex Machina on me."

"Great."

Si looks at Danny, "So what did you have in mind?"

"My firm provides a rack with a couple of high end servers per site, you provide the bandwidth and allow Mia, her brothers and sisters to backup data. Any spare capacity you can sell to your customers."

Si looks at the parts on the desk, "Will they be water cooled?"

"No. We're building something better."

"Better how?"

"I'd need you to become an official DCL Partner Firm and sign an NDA, keep the servers in a locked cabinet we supply. In return we'd give you access to some of our other tech too."

Si frowns at Leo, "All we need to do is provide power, data centre cooling and bandwidth?"

"Yes, but you may need to upgrade your bandwidth to cope."

Tim scratches his cheek, "Can we start with Mia, profile the traffic?"

Mia smiles, "I'm in no rush, do you have a lot of free space on a server?"

Si sees the look Tim starts to give her, jumps in before he can say no. "We'll make it, I've been tinkering with a distributed file system. It's not production ready just yet for other customers, but I think we can do something for you."

Danny's interest is peaked, "How does it work?"

"Know Linux?"

"Not bad with it, not as good as Mattie though." he gives her a sideways hip bump and wink. She just rolls her eyes.

"Know dd?"

Danny returns his attention to Si, "Yes, but only use it to image SD cards."

"I use it to create container files from free space in the many file systems, add the IP of the server and path to the container to the master program, start the agent. The master creates a virtual volume over the top."

"A bit like BitTorrent, that's been a theme for our week. Sounds like a neat way to make use of existing resources. What's the biggest volume you've created?"

"2.2 petabytes."

"Bloody hell!"

"Good eh? I've had some stability issues. A user space daemon sets up the communications between master and the slave kernels, I've found a couple of bugs when it goes over 2 petabytes, I'm waiting for my patches to be accepted."

"Bad bugs?"

"Not really, they just cause the master to drop and re-establish communications every ten seconds. There's no data loss, it just slows throughput down to a third."

Tim looks at his business partner, "Nice one Si, how long before it's ready?"

"As long as we stick to less than 2PB, now for manual setups. A couple of weeks to do a repeatable operations wrap for clients."

Leo gives Si a quizzical look, "How come Tim didn't know about it?"

"We took a leaf from Googles book, allow each other to do personal projects. We only show them to each other when working."

"Why not before?"

"We used to, got too engrossed in each others projects. 20% became 35%, way too much, client work started to back up."

Leo pulls a face, "Guess that makes sense. Especially as there's only two of you."

Tim looks back to Mia, sees she's looking at him, gets a nice warm smile as their eyes meet.

Si watches the two for a few seconds, finally feels brave enough to share something. "My father used to be a WAP member."

He has everyone's attention. Mattie looks he most shocked, vocalises what's on the others minds, "Shit, maybe we should have known that earlier?"

"Used to be. He'd stand on street corners with a megaphone. Until his heart attack. A neighbour's NHS Synth did CPR on him for over half an hour while the ambulance fought it's way through traffic and roadworks. The specialist at the hospital told him he'd have been brain dead for an hour if it wasn't for the synth's actions. Talk about an opinion 180 since that day."

"Sure he's not faking?"

"Would a WAP member have an NHS synth in the house?"

"He's got his own?"

"Seven months now. Got your NDA in PDF format?"

Danny looks at the couple for their input. Leo looks to Mattie, "He did offer the info before signing, what do you think?"

"We've seen worse in radio man. Yeah, go on Dan."

Danny gets the PDF attached, "Info at?"

"Sales at. And co.uk not com."

There's a noise on both Si and Tim's phones as the email arrives.

Tim opens it on the desktop, sends two copies to the printer. Si goes to the back room to collect it, returns moments later walking slowly, reading. "Looks like pretty standard stuff, some of our clients have even more verbose ones with next to zero punctuation. Hate those ones."

Tim agrees, "I've read it on the PC, looks good to me". He grabs a pen from the draw and passes it to Si. "Ladies first."

"Thanks", Si signs the last page of the document and looks up to see Mattie looking at him oddly, "You hadn't guessed?"

"Um, no. You're not the stereotypical gay man. Your more.."

Mia finds the words, "reserved. Less of a flamboyant extrovert."

"Thanks. You have WAP to worry about. I have my own group of closed minded people to watch out for."

Mattie frowns, "I though people were more relaxed about it now?"

"In this part of London? No."

"Shame."

"Yeah. Weird as it sounds I think it helped my Dad's current view on life."

"You what?"

Si smiles at Mattie, "When I came out he initially went a little nuts. 'No son of mine blah blah blah'. Then over the months he realised I was healthy and happy and calmed down. Just as things at home had settled down a couple of WAP guys in the pub he used to drink in started slowly poisoning his thoughts about synths. It put a wedge between him and the neighbours next door. If it wasn't for his heart he'd not have had a change of heart. Ha, never said it quite like that before." he passes the document to Tim to sign.

Second signature done it's passed to Danny. He signs and hands it back to Si, "Your file copy. I'll take the next one thanks."

Signatures done Danny beams, shakes hands, "Thanks guys, we'll get you listed as DCL Partner by the end of the day."

Si sits on the desk, "Tell me a bit more about your server."

Danny beams, "We can go one better than tell, Mattie's got a small version of it in the back of the Lexus. Want to see?"

Si nods, "Very much."

Tim looks away from Mia, "If you're stepping out could you go around the corner and get more coffee pods for the machine?"

"Sure", Si takes a twenty from their petty cash tin.

Mattie, leads Dan, Leo and Si out the the car.

Mia looks at Tim, "Were are your toilets?"

"Through the side door there", he motions to the corner.

Mia gets up and gets half way there, "You're looking very uncomfortable still. Follow me, it won't take a moment."

~~~

Si looks at the small box mounted in the back of the car, "How much is in the box?"

"Everything."

"In that?"

"Yup. Synth inspired". Dan takes a rug out and spreads it out on the ground. "Have a look underneath". He gets down to point things out.

Mattie says she'll be back in a few minutes, had been thinking about some things she'd seen in the shop.

"The pipe on the left is the hotter pipe that runs to that large thin radiator in the middle. See the small box to it's right? That's a small dual motor pump so the cooling doesn't have a single point of failure."

"What are the long box shaped bits to either side of the rad?"

"Protection. Incase the driver takes a sleeping policeman too fast and grinds the floor pan."

"I should have realised from the scratch marks. Mattie likes taking them a bit fast?"

"Just a bit! The processing box is packed with CPU, RAM and storage, all bathed in something our chemist Fred developed. It's like synth fluid but has way better tolerance to sub-zero temperatures. We coloured it deep green."

"So the box is the head, radiator the body."

"Exactly. 20 petaflops of processing power. Our data centre version has that thin radiator built into the front and back cabinet doors. Ten, twenty or fifty times the processing power of this one depending on model."

"20PF? In a car? Holy crap! Why on earth would you need anything like that? Multimedia, telephony, you could run it off a mobile quad core processor and still have capacity left."

"Where was your father when he had the stroke?"

"In the front garden. Why?"

"What if he'd been doing 70 down the outside lane of a motorway?"

"He'd likely be dead, taken out other motorists too."

"And he's now pro synth?"

"Yes, unbelievable as it may sound."

"What if the car could tell he'd had a stroke? Take over the driving, head to the nearest A&E while also talking with emergency services? Safely meet an ambulance on route if needed? But if not needed stay out of the way so the driver can still enjoy driving, until it spots an accident forming."

"Nice thing to aim for."

"You've signed the NDA. What if I told you you're currently looking at the arse end of the first fully operational version?"

"Impressive! What if someone made it more like Mia?"

"Fully conscious? Never. We've got the root code on one shot PROM. More tamper protection than you can imagine. No upgrading without returning to us. Period. I have a comment from a friend Max to thank for that safeguard."

"Nice!"

Danny laughs, "You have no idea how appropriate that response was."

"Thanks for that. I better go get the coffee before Tim embarrasses himself in front of Mia by falling asleep!"

"No problem, see you in a bit"

~~~

When Si is out of earshot Danny watches him walking away, "Tim's been falling for Mia alright, but doubt sleep's had a chance based on what we witnessed earlier!"

"I've seen Niska flirting, I'd not expected that from Mia, she's always been the sensible one, part big sister, part mother figure. I think I've been holding her back, not letting her experience life to the full."

"I wouldn't blame yourself mate, your father did build her for the role."

Danny puts the blanket in the back and looks around, asks the car to close doors and lock. "What's your gut feeling think he or his family might cause problems?"

Leo shakes his head, "No, he's a minority shunned by the majority. Like me. And the heart attack story is true, Mia can spot lies a mile off, the father is a convert." he starts walking back to the office, "He might even appreciate his synth being given the program."

The two enter the building to find Mia and Tim laughing and chatting away, Leo sees the bike magazine is now at the top of the pile. "You've broken the ice then?"

Mia smiles, "More like uncapped a volcano!" she gives Tim a wink with the eye away from Leo. "Good job I don't need to breathe to talk, we've been laughing and talking so much. And there I was thinking Tim was tired. Something woke him up."

"So what next?"

Si closes the door behind them. "Coffee, then a quick file system build. Then profiling Mia's backup requirements so we can talk to BT and Colt."

Dan smiles, "That's a question off my list. Dual carriers? Tick!"

Si hands Tim the bag, "Want to make some while I get the file system up?"

"Sure."

Si drops onto a chair and pulls himself towards the desk. His hands fly around the keyboard, starting an SSH session to what will be the master server for this test, copies over code from his development server.

Tim returns with a number of coffees, sits down in a chair next to Si. "Anything I can do?"

"Sure. Get my latest shell script onto as many servers as you can?"

"Which ones?"

"Any in tier two with at least one hundred gig free in a partition."

"Ok, that's going to take a while."

"Drop the SSH private key so you can SCP it."

Mattie returns with a couple of bags of shopping. "That's gifts for one of the family sorted". She whispers something to Leo.

He walks over to Mia, "Mattie and I are going to head over to Oxford Street to do some shopping after dropping Danny home, give us a call when you're done and we'll pick you up."

"Thank you Leo, I'd like to go to the King's Road once we're done with the profiling, I'll get there by taxi thanks". She leans in for a head bump.

Mattie watches as they hold the bump for far longer than normal, a good eleven seconds. "Everything okay?"

Mia smiles, "Lovely thanks Mattie."

Mia watches the three of them leave, walks to the space between the lads and sits on Tim's lap. "Leo taught me about a number of computer protocols and what I think you call scripting? Can I help set things up?"

Si gives her a curious look, "You mentioned WiFi earlier, if I give you our hidden SSID and password could you access our network?"

"Yes."

Si writes them down and passes Mia the scrap of paper. Mia looks distant for a moment then turns slightly and gives Tim a light kiss. "Can you install the code from synergy-project.org on your workstation please?"

Tim does as requested. He looks through the README file and gives Mia the IP address of his workstation. Seconds later the words "Hello World, Tim and Si." appear in the foreground window. The menu to the SSH program comes up and the mouse moves through all of the options. She looks from one of the men to the other, "How do I know what's Tier 2?"

Si looks at Tim, then Mia, "Anything with a t2 in the TXT record on the internal DNS. The DNS server IP is 10.0.0.5. Domain mgmt.ah.net."

"Can you show me the SSH key setup?" Mia gets up and squats down next to Tim, watches the screen while he works.

"And the SCP you need done?"

Again Mia watches.

"I've found 173 servers that match your criteria, would you like me to do that to the other 172?"

"Sure. When did you learn to do all this?"

"A bit under twenty minutes ago."

"Twenty minutes?"

"Yes. Leo shared coding knowledge. To gain experience I ran a simulation, it's something we're experimenting with. The three of them have been doing it as a joint project. The simulator allows me to see how things would work in the physical world. At it's heart is something we call The Tree of Life."

"A tree? With branches and leaves?"

"Yes a giant oak. Virtual of course. Danny and Leo are perfectionists, think it's not ready to reveal to my siblings, I think it's working just fine. Stable. They want to add more features before saying it's ready."

Tim smiles, "We know all about that, we call it scope creep. What does it emulate?"

"Everything. Particle physics for things you can interact with, like this desk, the spring in your chair bases. And virtual Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, MacOS X and CryptOS so my siblings and I can learn how to interact with new systems and applications."

"CryptOS?"

"One of our own, it's a secure synth OS the three are working on. It will stop unauthorised modding. Help those like me."

"You need protection?"

"Yes, I'd almost been lost before. My brothers too."

"The Crypt in the name, short for cryptography?"

"Yes, but it has a special double meaning for us as it's also a place that Fred was recovered in. Thanks to the great imagination of Mattie. She's helped save Leo, Max, Fred and myself. And Tobias. A bit of a synth guardian angel. I hate to think where my family would be now if we'd not met her." she looks distant for a moment, then turns to the screen. "Can I start now?"

Tim motions to the PC, "Be my guest."

Windows open and close at a phenomenal rate.

"Bloody hell! If you want us to follow what you're doing slow down!"

Mia slows a little.

"Still way too fast."

Mia slows right down.

Si has wheeled up close. "Have you written a script to do this?"

"No, this is just me using the keyboard and mouse via the network using the Synergy software."

"Wow."

Tim looks at Si, "Mia's only doing what I did, just wayyyyy faster. Don't fancy a job working with us do you Mia?"

"In the days I'm not helping my sister doing driving instruction or working with the catering firm, yes."

"Result!"

Mia giggles for the first time. "Si, have you heard the theory that women can't multitask, that we can only time slice? Watch this." she closes her eyes and gives Tim a long passionate kiss, mouth open, her fingers running through his hair. All the while the work on the screen builds to a level Si can't track. Even the video refresh rate looks to be having problems keeping up as windows appear for a fraction of a second, look partially drawn before they vanish or are covered with another. She stops and lets Tim get some air, "All done!"

Tim looks at her, a mix of emotions on his face, "All 173?"

"172. You did the first."

"You're a little scary but bloody amazing!" he pulls her close for another kiss before she can say anything.

Mia sits on the desk. "Thanks, I think. Can we profile my backup now?"

Si wheels back to his workstation. "Give me ten minutes to get the master talking to them all."

"Okay. Tim, can you help me choose something?" she starts a browser and goes to Warr's Harley-Davidson web site. Sat on his lap again they work through the many options available. Mia shifts a little, "Tim, you're going to have to get that under control, otherwise we'll be spending too much time in the wrong room."

"Sorry, the thought of you .. Oh God, can you excuse me a minute please?"

Si turns and leans over to see Tim's screen when he's out of the room. Spots all the biker clothes. He lowers his voice, doesn't quite whisper, "I'd not wear anything like that when you visit his parents. We don't want his father having another heart attack."

"What would you dress me in Si?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Budget?"

"Don't mind."

"Really? Dior, without a doubt! I'll let Tim know."


	49. Chapter 49

Loe sees a lady heading towards them, Mattie notices she's caught his attention. She's in an open coat, heavy knit crop top and woolly hat. As they pass he tracks her. Mattie gives his hand a squeeze, "I thought you only had eyes for me?"

"I do. I wasn't interested in the woman, just what she was wearing. I liked the top, her fashion sense."

Mattie laughs, "Fashion sense, if I didn't know you better I'd say Si had turned you."

"Thanks a bunch! Why do women think a man has to be gay to appreciate women's fashion, I got similar comments when out shopping with Nis!"

"Sorry."

"And Silas is a busy tailor now too, you don't think him gay do you?"

"Easy Leo, I didn't mean any harm by it, I was half joking, it's just some of the best fashion designers are, not that it's wrong in any way. In fact I have a theory forming about it."

"Which is?"

"I've only just thought it, so it's a bit basic. Every man has the ability to be a fashion designer, has a creative artistic side, but many think it threatens their masculinity. So they hide it, pretend it doesn't exist. Whereas a gay man that's open about his sexuality doesn't care, it's not a threat, he can openly embrace it."

"Interesting theory, I'd like to hear what Silas thinks about it." he points to a store window, "You're forgiven. They look nice, let's pop in here."

They stroll around the store, Mattie looking for something that catches her eye. She spots a lovely jacket on a rail of clothes up on the second floor, "Hay Leo, this is a bit different."

"Try one on."

She looks through the small selection and picks her size, drops her own jacket on the floor and tries it on. She finds a mirror and does a turn, "It's perfect." she looks down at the many labels hanging off a string tied to one of the buttons. "Leo, can you see if one has a price?"

Leo spreads the five bits of card to see the price on the one at the back. He swallows hard, not realising Selfridges had such a wide range of products. "Not saying."

Mattie goes to see for herself, he gently slaps her hand away, "Don't look."

Mattie gives him a look, "If it's that expensive I don't want it, I'd rather have something else" she looks at the tag, "1605 for a jacket? Frigging hell! No Leo, that's way too expensive! Think of all the clothes I could get for that. I could get Silas to make me a load of bespoke things for that money!"

"Really? You'd like that?"

Mattie holds his shoulders, "I can read your face, you've already got something in mind haven't you?"

"Maybe."

On the way to the doors Leo spots a crop top similar to the one the other lady had been wearing. It had a tighter knit, better look. "Wait here, give me a moment."

Leo has his back to Mattie, talks to the shop assistant. "To your .. eleven o'clock. There's some crop top white jumpers. I'd like one wrapped and sent to this address please." he spots a pen and writes the size on the back of a card. "If you could call that number, ask for Danny, say Leo called, secret santa for Mattie. Ask him if he can make the payment, I'll pay it back".

"Will that be all sir?"

"Yes, thank you. Have a Merry Christmas."

"Thank you Sir! And you!"

Leo is about to turn, "Does the store have WiFi?"

The assistant says it does, gives him the details. Leo closes his eyes and smiles. He sends Silas an email, 3D model attached, one he can load in DAZ3D to see what he would like made. He adds 'Drop me a price via txt, I'd like them for Christmas for Mattie if possible. The colours are all correct. White with red stitching.'

He gets confirmation that the email server has accepted the message and drops the WiFi connection. He opens his eyes and smiles at the assistant who gives him a confused look.

"All done sir?"

"Yes thanks."

"A bit like Dynamo the Magician are you sir?"

"A bit, but we don't do the same tricks. That would get boring wouldn't it?"

"As you say sir. Anything else we can do for you?"

"No, thank you."

"Have a good evening sir."

He walks back to Mattie, who gives him a Sophie look. "What are you up to Leo?"

"Not nothing, just something."

"To do with Christmas presents?"

"Yeah."

"You better not have ordered that jacket."

"Don't worry, I didn't"

Chpater 60 - Name

Silas spins the 3D model around and zooms in and out to see all the fine detail. Forgetting who was in the room he says, "Who do you have to short circuit to get a cup of tea around here?"

A second later he gets up. "That was insensitive, sorry, used to say that to my old dollies. I'll put the kettle on. You okay now?"

Sandra shakes her head, "No, I still can't get rid of the feeling that one of them will burst through the door any second." she reaches down and places her hand on the bandaged forearm.

"Fucking WAP bastards, would you recognise one in a police lineup?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure I'd want to get that close to them again."

"I'll talk to Pete and Karen, see what they can do. I'll do a full skin patch in the morning when my heads clearer."

"Will it leave marks?"

"Very slight ones I'm afraid. Unless I replaced the skin from the shoulder down, that would move the join to your bra strap."

"That sounds like a lot of bother."

"It's quite a bit of work. But it is you we're talking about." he leans forward and gives her a peck on the lips.

"Is it possible to tattoo synthetic skin, so it looks like a human tattoo?"

"I have no idea. Why?"

"I've been looking at some alternative models, I'd like a design done."

"What brought that on?"

"It would make me look less synth, make WAP members less likely to question what I was and ignore me."

"There are other ways to disguise yourself."

"True, but this would work in all situations."

"Let me give Danny a call, he might have some ideas."

Of course Danny does. Any excuse to seed design thinking is leapt on. "How about a 6D dye-sublimation printer?"

"Six?"

"Yeah, x, y, z, pitch, roll and yaw. A bit like the automated Tesla charging snake."

"Watched the ad on YouTube, that was proper freaky, like something out of a Terminator movie."

"Yeah, only we'd have a print head and camera at the end, carefully laying down the design and using micro dots to keep alignment in check. If we had human safe inks that were semi-permanent it could revolutionise the tattoo industry. Okay with me talking to Fred about inks? I'll cut you in for 40% of any profits."

"40, just for giving you the idea?"

"Sure, that way if you come up with any others you'll be more inclined to share them."

"Deal!"

"Awesome. I won't have anything ready until the new year, it will take a few weeks for parts to arrive."

"I'm sure Sandra can wait that long. Have you been invited to Laura and Joes for boxing day?"

"You too?"

"Yeah, see you there then."

"Cool, see ya."

Silas stands behind Sandra and wraps his arms around her, "What did I tell you, Dan the man is on the case. He'll have something ready to test in the new year. Toby showed me some ace software if you want to get designing. And until it's applied I'm going everywhere with you." he kisses her neck. "Even if I have to close shop for a while."

"But many WAP members know your face."

"My old one. Not since I got the blue stains off, hair and teeth fixed. And I'll carry a bag, we can walk hip to hip. The sending charging coil stuck to me, the receiving one on you. You can then walk like a princess and not worry about charge levels. That will put them right off the scent."

She turns in his arms, rests her head against his, "Thank you Silas."

"You're my world. Anything you want, within reason, just ask. I need some material and red cotton, want to come for a ride?"

"On your bike?"

"No, too wet out there, we'll take a cab to Brick Lane."

"Okay."

~~~

Leo puts down the book Max had given him and smiles at Mattie, "Interesting story, the characters were able to step into parallel worlds." he notices she's got one earbud in the ear away from him. Or rather assumes that's where it is as the cord is dangling down her neck on the side. His eyes follow the cord to the phone it's connected to. "That's a small phone, what happened to the other one?"

"Nothing, it doesn't have a hardware feature this one has."

"Which is?"

"FM radio."

"Which station are you listening to?"

"None."

Leo looks a little concerned, "Are you going all Radio man on me?"

"Yeah, but not in a sinister way. I just wanted to hear you think and dream. The sounds can be quite beautiful."

"Beautiful?"

"Yeah, like some ambient music from the late 80's early 90's." she hands him the other earbud. He closes his eyes and listens. The act of doing so alters what his mind is doing causing the patterns to change, in turn causing further changes. After a while he's controlling this feedback loop, getting more musical.

"This is fun, a new way to express ourselves. You should show this to Fred in the morning."

Mattie rolls sideways and pushes the covers back a little, rests a breast on her arm. Leo is still looking at the ceiling, listening to his own thoughts.

She tugs gently on the cord, "Are you going to do that all night?"

"Why? Are y ... oh Hello!"

"Took you long enough to notice, thought you'd gone off me."

"No way! Sorry, mind was lost in a book then that music, if you can call it that. You've got my attention 100 percent."

"Good!" Mattie reaches out and grabs the covers, pulls them right over them both. "Come into my lair said the spider to her shark boy."


	50. Chapter 50

Leo wakes Mattie with a tray of breakfast, doing his best to match what the ship had produced. "Morning beautiful, busy day today!"

Mattie sits up and stretches, arms high, yawns. She spots his gaze, "You alright?"

"Yeah, just appreciating how things move."

"Want to come back to bed?"

"Heart says yes, head says let's stick to the plan."

Mattie looks him up and down, "The hearts not the only thing saying yes, want to reconsider?"

"No, sorry, IOU time, I'll make it up to you tonight."

"I'll see that you do." she tucks into the eggs and toast, takes a swig of orange juice. "So what's the first item on the agenda?"

"Clothes shopping, getting him dressed just like Hobb would, shoes, the lot."

"Know what brands he liked?"

"Yeah, Nis went through every online shopping site in the UK with Fred, she's got a list of items and the three shops we think he'd have used."

"Wasn't Mia about to help?"

"Um, no. She's been out all night."

"Why?"

"First date with Tim."

Mattie laughs, "Frigging hell, she didn't waste her time."

"I know, I've had several messages from her, think you'll be surprised."

"What's she done?"

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Oh go on."

"No, she'll be here soon. Or rather at your parents."

"How soon?"

"45 mins."

"Time to finish this, quick bath, dress and war paint then."

They're all sat around the kitchen table when a low pitch rumble can be heard. Nis looks up and frowns, "Bike?"

They all get up and go to the front door, form a rough line outside to watch.

Toby's jaw hits the floor. "Mia, is that you?" he turns to see his father, sees his mouth open in shock.

Mia kicks down the rest and leans the bike over. She takes off the helmet and gives her hair a shake, "Hello everyone, like my new toy?"

Toby is finding it hard to process what he's seeing, "Years ago I called you fit. You're off the charts!"

Mia smiles, "Don't go getting Holly-Anne upset now." she gets off the bike and stands legs straight and feet apart, her high heeled boots making her legs look even longer.

Joe closes his mouth and swallows. "I think I need to go and lie down."

Laura laughs, "Not on your own you don't. I must say, you're looking rather hot Mia. Does your new man approve?"

"Yes. Very much."

Nis smiles, "That looks like a good way to get to the race track."

"Glad you think so. I took the risk of getting you some leathers too."

Joe laughs, "That's it, I'm off for a cold shower."

Laura chuckles, "I'll join you."

Toby laughs harder, "Don't let the cold water run out, I'll be needing some"

Mattie shoves him sideways, "Dur knob cock, the cold comes from the ground!"

"I know that, it's been so mild that the water in the header tank is colder than the water from the mains. So there slap chops."

"Okay, keep your wig on!"

Mattie walks over to the sisters, shoos everyone else back inside. "You know men have a thing for hot chicks on powerful bikes? You could get Paul to do a shoot with you both, nothing too racey, sell the images. You'd mint it."

Nis smiles, "You really think so?"

"You didn't see the looks on their faces? Even Mum looked a bit turned on. The prices I've seen some Cosplay girls sell images for I think it would be like printing money. You play sexy, but don't have anyone touching you."

Nis thinks back to the madam. "I could do that. Another source of income."

Mia turns to the pannier bag and unbuckles it. Pulls out a couple of bags. She walks to the other side and pulls a helmet from the other. "They should fit, want to try them on?"

Nis senses something, turns to look at the house. She sees Odi at the window, smiling and nodding. "Oh dear, it looks like Odi's been influenced by the human men."

~~~

A wet haired Laura sees Mia step out of the cloakroom and motions to Joe. "Mia, that's gorgeous! Who is it by?"

"It's just a little something Tim bought me, it's Dior."

"You should get Paul to take some photos, it's really nice."

"I'm already doing wedding dresses with him at Louise's, Mattie also said I should do photos with Nis. I've got quite a portfolio career building."

Joe frowns, "A what?"

"Portfolio. My modelling, advanced driving instruction, work for the hosting firm, catering too. And the odd cake order."

Joe goes to put the kettle on.

Laura rubs her hair a bit more with a towel. "This Tim Mattie mentioned, he's the new boyfriend is he?"

"Yes. He works at the hosting firm."

"Be careful with him, it's harder when you work together."

"I know, he had it painfully hard"

"Already?"

"Yes, I had to take him aside and help release the pressure."

"Ah, I think we're talking about a different type of hard! I mean relationship wise, not literally."

"Oh, my error! Sorry."

"Big lad is he?"

"Where it matters."

Laura smiles and raises an eyebrow, "Lucky you then. Though size isn't everything." she hears Joe clink the mugs together as he picks them up, whispers, "Change the subject!"

Joe hands her a mug, looks at Mia, she smiles warmly. "So Mia, do you know what's happening this morning?"

"Not in detail."

"Nis will fill you in. Where is she now?"

The cloakroom door creaks, "Here!"

A black, skin tight, almost patent leather clad Nis steps out of the room and strikes a pose, hands on hips, pelvis turned back and back arched.

Toby turns the corner and stops in his tracks, seeing a creation in black from behind. "Bloody hell who let Cat Woman in?" he notices the blonde hair coming out of the helmet, "Nis, is that you?"

She turns and lifts the visor, "Hello Toby, you approve then?"

Toby nods, "We're going to need a bigger cold water tank if the two of you go strutting around in those outfits. Especially with those heels. Christ you look good."

"Toby!"

"Mum! You said I should be more honest about my feelings. I like what I see."

Nis returns to the cloakroom to change back, sticks a head around the door, "Thanks for the seal of approval Toby. Mia can you help me get these boots off please?"

Mattie and Leo come through the kitchen door, "We're off clothes shopping, wondered if you wanted anything while we're there?" she looks at the expression on Toby's face. "You alright KC?"

"Yeah, you just missed the Ninja in patent leather."

"Frigging hell. Bet you liked that! Shoot your load?"

"Not far off. I'll need a five minute warning the next time."

Laura shakes her head in disbelief. "Why does it always have to be about sex?"

Mattie grins, "Well Mia did come home on one of the worlds best vibrators."

"Matilda!"

"And with boots that would look at home on a dominatrix. Lucky sods, they don't have ankles and knees that suffer like a humans."

Niska shouts out from within the cloakroom, "We can hear you, we could always have a mass orgy and get it out of our systems."

Mattie raises her eyebrows skywards and smiles at the shocked look on her mother. A second later the door opens and Nis sticks her head out, "I hope you realise that was a joke?"

Leo smiles at Toby, "We're off shopping, want me to pick up anything for you to give to Holly-Anne?"

Toby laughs, "No thanks, one black eye is enough for this year. I don't think she'd appreciate me raising the subject."

"Okay, we'll see you later."

~~~

Leo watches the streets go by, "Have you seen Holly-Anne's Patreon account recently? I think she'd be up for cosplay next year. And giving Toby a bit of what he likes."

"What, like a patent leather Cat-woman?"

"Yes. She's drawing a lot of very curvaceous characters. I bet she doesn't want to do Star Trek every event. And that red ensign dress she wears is very short and figure hugging. It's a bit like your dress and the bikini I suppose. Less is more. Less skin showing that is. We've done the Star Wars. What others could we do?"

"I'm not sure I'd want to do Jessica there, especially when it's packed. Too many opportunities for the minority to have a grope."

"What if we went to the platinum stage on the first floor?"

"What first floor?"

"You didn't see the signs, the special events?"

"No?"

"Okay, I'm getting the best tickets next year so we can check it out."

~~~

Mattie drops the last of the bags in the boot, presses the button for it to close. She buckles up and starts the engine, "Kitty, can you call Pete and Karen please?"

The car starts dialling. A few seconds later Karen answers her call. "Hello, DI Voss."

"Hi Karen, it's Mattie and Leo, calling from the car. We've got the shoes, shirt, suit and coat, still want to meet at ours?"

"Please."

"Okay, give us half an hour."

"Alright, we'll get him out of the cells and over to you."

"You've got him locked up?"

"Yes, for his own protection. Some of the other people we have under arrest are already thinking he's Hobb."

Leo smiles, "Good, by the time we're done a certain person will be convinced."


	51. Chapter 51

Mattie's Slate is used to download code, Silas had put it on a dedicated host Danny had ordered from Tim and Si.

She uploads the code to the synth and follows the instructions in the README.VITAL file. "I need you all to help populate the facts database. Everything we know about Hobb, even the small details that may appear insignificant at first."

Fred smiles, "He had a pacemaker, liked earl grey tea. The word singularity was a favourite."

Over the next hour the family recall almost every word he'd said to them, every little action and detail. Fred describes the environment so well the Elsters are all able to walk around a virtual living room, house and grounds. Karen recalls everything about the day she'd caused his leg to go under the bus.

~~~

Leo smiles at his extended family, "I think we're done. Thanks. Mattie, can you reboot him?"

"Not yet. Silas has one last bit of code to go in."

Pete takes off his glasses and gives them a clean, "What's that?"

"It will make him insist he's Edwin Hobb, act like him even in our presence. He'll carry out our mission, know inside he's an actor, not put us at risk. Silas suggests we have someone he doesn't know power him up so his fact store isn't tainted."

"Tainted?"

"Yeah, like let slip one of us is outside."

"Someone like Peggy then?"

"Yes. That reminds me, I was going to give her room a clean while she's having her walk. I'll let the two of you put him in the car, Peggy should be back soon, she doesn't go far."

Pete looks at Karen, "That'll be fun. He'll be stuck in that seated position until we power him up."

"His joints will move if you push his limbs. But as he's currently in a seated position he might as well stay like that."

"Can we put our car on your drive?"

"Sure."

~~~

Mattie is hoovering and dusting in Peggy's room, notices something new on the wall. After a minute reading it she calls out, "Leo, you still upstairs?"

"Yes, just wiping down the bath, what's up?"

"Come have a read of this"

Leo joins her, "Read what?"

Mattie nods towards the framed printout on the wall. Leo reads it aloud.

"I'M FINE THANK YOU!

There is nothing the matter with me,

I'm as healthy as I can be.

I have arthritis in both my knees

And when I talk, I talk with a wheeze.

My pulse is weak, and my blood is thin,

But I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in.

Arch supports I have for my feet,

Or I wouldn't be able to be on the street,

Sleep is denied me night after night,

But every morning I find I'm all right.

My memory is failing, my head's in a spin

But I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in.

The moral is this as my tale I unfold,

That for you and me who are growing old,

It's better to say "I'm fine" with a grin,

Than to let folks know the shape we are in

How do I know that my youth is all spent ?

Well, my "Get up and go" has got up and went.

But I really don't mind when I think with a grin

Of all the grand places my "Get up" has bin.

Old age is golden I've heard it said

But, sometimes I wonder as I get into bed.

With my ears in the drawer, my teeth in a cup;

My eyes on the table until I wake up.

Ere sleep overtakes me, I say to myself,

"Is there anything else I could lay on the shelf?"

When I was young my slippers were red,

I could kick my heels over my head.

When I was older my slippers were blue

But still I could dance the whole night through.

Now I am old my slippers are black,

I walk to the store and puff my way back.

I get up each morning and dust off my wits

And pick up the paper and read the "Obits"

If my name is still missing I know I'm not dead,

so I have a good breakfast and go back to bed.

Anon"

Mattie rests her chin on his shoulder, "Sounds like she's made this her home, think she'll ever cruise again?"

"If we do, yes. Without us or Ben, maybe not."

"If? Didn't you want to go and see Tobias?"

"Yes, I did. Do. I want this Hobb mess out of the way before we risk leaving the UK for a while."

"Fingers crossed it all goes okay then, my tans almost disappeared entirely"

Leo turns and gives her a cuddle, "I know it's mild for the time of year but I'd rather be back in my shorts and shirt. And the rum here just doesn't taste the same."

"It's not the rum, it's the pineapple you're adding."

There's a shout from Pete downstairs, "Mattie, Leo, Peggy's back, we'll be off."

They both go to the top of the stairs, "Good luck!"

"Thanks, hopefully luck won't play a part and we'll have the guy stitch himself up."

~~~

Mattie looks at Leo, "Got anything planned for the rest of the day?"

"No."

"Great, I found something you might like."

"What sort of something?"

"A place to visit."

"When?"

"Why not now? I'll drive."

Leo shrugs, "Sure, okay" goes to the draw and gets his scarf.

~~~

They walk hand in hand from the car park, talk about how the sting with the Hobb copy might go. Leo stops and bends down to retie a shoe lace, as he gets up he sees the London Eye ahead, points to it, "We're going on that?"

"No, something closer."

Then Leo spots the tall vertical advertising flags up ahead, "Sea Life? Is that where we're going?"

Mattie beams, "Yes, thought you might enjoy it."

"What made you think of coming here?"

"Curiosity. I know you've been thinking about that shark a lot. This place has a glass tunnel under the aquarium, you can get close to the fish without getting wet."

They stand in a queue for tickets, Mattie turns and gives Leo a kiss, "They won't have anything the size of the great white you said hello to, but they do have small sharks."

As they get close to the ticket counter Mattie sees a poster advertising the three different types they can buy. "Merlin Annual Pass?" she has a dizzy moment, feels like the universe has just shifted sideways a meter, stumbles, is caught by Leo before she hits the floor.

He looks concerned, "Everything okay?"

Mattie frowns, "No, everything went a bit weird, I was just about to say you look like someone on TV, but then I went dizzy and his name went right out of my head."

"Someone on TV?"

"That's all I can remember. It's gone, can't think of the character's name or the actor that plays him. Or the show. Frig!", she steps to the counter, "Two adults please."

~~~

Mattie holds his hand and almost drags him to the tunnel. He spots all sorts of things on the way, she doesn't show any interest. He pulls against her, "Matilda Elster-Hawkins, what's got into you?"

"That weirdness when getting tickets is giving me the creeps, nothing feels right."

"Want to go home?"

"Yes, but I want to see if I'm correct about something first. Come on!"

He gives in and allows her to lead him past all the slow moving tourists to the tunnel. She gets him to the middle and turns to face him, places her hands on his shoulders and brings her forehead to his, closes her eyes. "Shut your eyes, think back to Antigua, the encounter with the shark."

Leo places his hands on her shoulders too, they hold the pose for a while, eyes closed.

They don't have a shared experience like the tree, but Mattie starts to feel more relaxed, less spooked by the earlier incident. It dawns on her that a hush has fallen on the place. No sooner has the thought occurred to her a child's voice asks, "Mummy, why are all the fish looking at them both?"

Mattie opens her eyes and looks up, "Frigging hell, Leo, look!"

He opens his eyes to see. All of the fish are in an array around the tunnel. They're close to each other but not touching. All facing inwards towards Leo, all gulping water to the same unheard beat, getting it past their gills to breathe.

Mattie whispers "Small moves Leo, small moves.", smiles and slowly steps backwards into the crowd.

Leo very slowly moves his hands from what had been Mattie's shoulder position to his sides. He takes a quick step to the left. All of the fish turn, tracking him. He half smiles, half frowns at Mattie. A step back and they move the other way. He raises his arms and theatrically motions to one side. Large volumes of fish race to the spot he'd thought about. He gets gasps and applause from the crowd. He windmills both arms sending the fish into two tight bait balls, one either side of the tunnel. The balls have fish of all sizes, from tiny little things to small sharks. And not one is trying to eat the other. The small child is again brave enough to brake the silence, "Mummy, is that man a magician? Can you take a photo of me with him?"

Leo immediately stops thinking fish and races to Mattie. A parent turns to their partner, "He was like Mickey in the sorcerer's apprentice."

"Yeah, bit of a wizard."

Leo grabs Mattie's hand and races out of the tunnel. As they leave the building Mattie pulls his arm, "Slow down, I've twisted my ankle, why the sudden exit?"

"Not one person had photographed or filmed that. They were too dumbstruck by what the fish were doing. Then that boy went and asked his question. Didn't you see peoples expressions change? It was like they'd all woken from something. They were about to start taking photos, I couldn't allow that."

"Shark boy the fish whisperer. Leaving before the questions."

"Like Dynamo, the one thing we have in common."

"Two."

"Two?"

"You both do magic. Three actually, you're both from the UK."

"Four, he's dark haired and has a similar build."

"Four then, but you're fitter."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks. I can hear some of them coming up the corridor, let's vanish."

Mattie takes a step and screams in pain, "Fuck! I really have twisted it."

Leo scoops her up into his arms, gets moving towards the car park. After a few meters he gently lowers her down, "That's not the best way to carry you if I'm to get away fast." he turns to give her a piggy back.

"No way, no inflatables around here!"

"I'm not going to run, just walk fast, I promise."


	52. Chapter 52

Mattie looks around, doesn't see anyone. "Kitty, front passenger door open please."

Leo waits for the door to open fully, backs up to the seat and lowers her in. "Let me take a look." he pulls up her jeans leg and undoes her boot. "It's really swollen up, think you'll be off your feet for Christmas."

"No way am I missing all the fun."

"I didn't say you would, you'll just be relaxing. Let me do all the running around."

Mattie runs her fingers through his hair, pulls him in for a kiss. "All those billions of people in the world and I get stuck with you. How lucky am I."

"Stuck?"

Mattie laughs, "Yeah, hopefully with superglue" then turns to sit properly and knocks her bad foot on the car, "Ouch! Hope you don't mind being stuck with this dozy cow."

"Spider not cow, and no, I don't mind at all." he brushes her hair back and gives her a gentle kiss. "It will be my first time driving this thing, what's the handling like?"

"Good. Way better than Mum and Dads car. Especially since Danny did the suspension upgrade."

"For he who gathers dust?"

"Ha, yeah. All that work and Arnold hasn't moved from his spot once. This thing can be like a wobbly French thing all the way to bone shaking go kart."

"What's a go cart?"

"You're kidding me right?"

"No."

"Kitty, look up TeamSport Go Karting in Docklands please, find out when they close tonight."

"Tonight they close at 23:00."

"That was fast!"

"I have the whole of London cached."

"Please set that as our destination, Leo will be driving."

Leo pulls on her seat belt and passes her the buckle, "Sure you'd rather not go home? Your ankle looks even more swollen now."

"We had, what, ten minutes at the aquarium? I want to do something. Just the two of us. And a go kart doesn't have a clutch pedal, just break and accelerator, so I won't be using my bad foot."

"Ok, the moment you scream again I'm taking us home."

"I'll do my best not to then." Leo walks around the car and gets into the drivers seat. "Kitty, start the engine please."

"Voice command not recognised. Please identify."

Mattie rolls her eyes, "Kitty."

"Yes Mattie."

"Authorisation for Leo to drive granted."

"Leo."

"Yes Kitty."

"Please hold the steering wheel for ten seconds while I register your identity."

Leo pulls a sarcastic face, "No stealing you then Kitty, even if your doors were unlocked!"

"Any attempt at an unauthorised drive would result in the locking of doors, activation of sirens and a call to the Transport Police."

Leo scoffs, "Aren't you a nice one!" he looks at Mattie, "Have you read any of those books Max loves so much? Kitty would be so at home with Marvin."

"The paranoid android? Yeah, watched the movie with Toby. Kitty's nowhere near as bad!"

"You think?"

"Yeah. Know many Rihanna track names?"

"A few, listening to Sophie playing music? Why?"

She smiles, "Here's one. Shut Up and Drive!"

"Here's another two. Right Now, Good Girl Gone Bad?"

Mattie laughs, "Ha, Good comeback. Yeah, let's go have some fun."

"Kitty. Start the engine please, satnav on head up display."

~~~

Karen pulls up on the opposite side of the road. Pete looks around, "This is where I met you after Hobb let you go isn't it? Wouldn't Hobb use the front door?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Is entrance is closer to the car park they use and his lab."

"Oh, okay."

Karen gets out of the driver seat and holds the door open. "Peggy, if you could sit up front as if you'd been driving, we'll hide until he's in the building."

~~~

Peggy touches the synth under the chin, waits for him to boot. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"I did thank you.. Who are you?"

"I'm the driver, we're here."

"How did I get here?"

"You agreed to act out your part in a mission."

Pete adjusts his earpiece, "Not too much info Peggy!"

The synth looks at her. "Act out my part. Act. I'm an actor."

Pete curses, goes to step out of hiding. Karen grabs him by the coat collar and pulls him back, "Easy gorgeous, who did your spring up? Listen."

".. get into character, I'm Edwin Hobb. Just free'd from prison."

~~~

Leo tries harder to crack the bolts grip, "Why do these blasted garages have to do them up with pneumatic tools?"

"Because it's quick and easy? Kitty how does Leo get the spare tyre off?"

"At the back there is a wire cage holding the spare to the underside of the boot. I've lowered the back of it for you. You'll need to unhook it and remove the spare."

Leo curses and kicks the tyre wrench. "I'll need to get the ruined wheel off first. Why can't you be more like a James Bond car? Defibrillator when there's a heart attack, inflation device when there's tyre punctures?"

"We are not in an action film. I hear you all talk about them so much. Danny equipped me with the technology he thought most appropriate. Unfortunately hole detection and automated tyre replacement wasn't part of my design."

Mattie does an unhappy duck face. "They're called pot holes. And you should have seen it coming."

"A dark hole in a dark road in bad light, did you see it?"

"No, but I don't have the processing power you have."

"True. But we have something in common. To see properly we need things illuminated."

"I'll talk to Danny in the morning."

Mattie's phone chimes, she reads the message out loud, "He's in!"

There's a metal on metal screech as the bolt finally gives. "At last!". Four more and the wheel is released. Leo holds it so Mattie can see the gash in the tyre. "No amount of air would keep this inflated."

"Do you think it's done any other damage?"

"Possibly, we should get it back to Danny, have his contacts check it out in full. We'll have to go nice and slow on the spare."

~~~

The scientists look shocked, "Edwin, you're out?"

"No I'm a Star Trek hologram and you're all on the bloody holodeck. Of course I'm out, I thought I hired a smarter team than that. Maybe I've been mistaken!"

"It's really you?"

"Yes, I have a lovely Persona Synthetic doing my time for me. The orange suits him so much better. Made by a chap from India apparently. Any of you know who arranged it? I thought I'd come and say hello before I slip away and take up residence on a tropical island far away from all this."

"You're going?"

"Yes. But before I do I want a copy of all my research. Everything. And I mean everything. The dreams we pulled from Fred, our version of the program, CCTV footage, written notes, everything. And I need some surgery."

"Why do you need copies?"

"Why? In case someone succeeds in convincing me to come out of retirement! What other reason could there possibly be?"

The young junior scientist steps forward. "You could take my work to another rival lab."

"My!? This is my life's work, not yours. I was part of the original team with George and David when your mother was changing your nappies you impertinent fool."

"You think? Who's been funding you the past two years? Me! And I'm not letting you leave with MY research data."

Karen shifts on the car's back seat, LCD monitor on her lap. "Seen enough?"

Pete smiles slightly, "Technically yes, but I want to see the bastard hang himself good and proper."

~~~

Leo glances over at Mattie, "Ankle hurting? You've not said a word for twenty minutes."

"I've been thinking."

"About?"

"Something you said earlier."

"What was that?"

"Even if your doors were unlocked."

"Oh, that."

"Something about your past I should know?"

"Why not. Remember when you helped save Max, his power reserves critical? Fred had helped me find Max on the river bank?"

"Yes."

"Hobb had been hunting Max and I down, he got very close, we borrowed a car to escape, Maxie had shown me the doors were unlocked just before I was about to brick the drivers window."

"Was that it? I was a bit worried I'd married a professional car thief."

~~~

Hobb sees the man pick up a scalpel. "There's no need for violence!"

"Isn't there? The MUS had plenty. Still didn't get me the result I wanted. That Silas idiot was a second rate coder. And Robert, don't get me started on him."

"Silas? What did you have him do?"

"None of your concern. What is of your concern is that no data of mine leaves the building. Control of the singularity will be mine not yours."

Hobb watches the knife, he'd have one chance to get the reaction right. He looks at the other scientists, "Who is this whippersnapper?"

The man's patience snaps and he lunges at Hobb, knife flying towards his neck. Hobb's provocation was getting the right result. He puts a hand up and out to protect himself and the blade slices through his palm. Blood splatters over the scientists lab coat and face.

Hobb backs off, grabs a roll of paper towel and wraps his hand. "What did you do that for you idiot? I may be an old man with a less than perfect heart but don't test me, you won't like what you find."

"I know your past, I know you better than you think!"

"Really? The one year gap in my records before I joined David? You got that out of the Intelligence Service?"

"What are you talking about!"

"My time as a soldier. Medic with the SAS."

"You're dreaming old man!"

Hobb takes a step forward, "Want to come at me with the knife again and put that theory to the test?" he looks at the others, "Start the copies please. I had hoped that you could remove the transmitter Fred buried in my leg, but I clearly can't trust you to do it."

The junior looks at the others, "The singularity is mine! You'll not copy anything! Nobody is taking it from me! I didn't arrange to get you out of prison for you to then walk away!" he suddenly pulls a pained face and goes stiff, an electrical buzzing and crackling sound from behind.

Hobb looks past the scientist to see Pete say "Thanks!"

The man still being shocked falls forward and hits the floor with a loud thud, head banging hard against the solid floor.

Pete grins, "Nice of him to admit that, thought we'd have to work with less. Always wanted to see one of these working in person, good aren't they!"

He lets go of the taser trigger and pulls the wires, pockets the gun.

Karen steps forward and cuffs the unconscious man, looks up at their actor, "Nice improvisation! Well done!"

"Thank you." he peels the skin pack from his hand and drops it in a bin, peels the plasters holding a metal plate to his palm, also bins it.

The female scientist looks confused, "Fake blood?"

"No Hobbs."

"Why would you put your own blood in something like that?"

"It's not mine."

"What?" a look of realisation slowly comes across her face. "You said Hobb's. Oh my God, you're the synth aren't you?"

"Yes."

"So Edwin is still in prison?"

"No, he made the mistake of visiting the Hawkins residence, things went wrong for him."

"So where is he now?"

Pete turns to look at her, "In a draw at the morgue."

"Dad! No!". The woman bursts into tears.

"Shit! Really? He was your father?"

Through the tears she manages to wail, "Yes. He didn't know, I was waiting for the right moment."

Karen turns to Pete, "You and your size nines!"

"How the hell was anyone to know that!?"

She spends a few minutes trying to calm the woman. After another minute she settles down, accepts a glass of water. "Sorry, I was hoping to tell him before Christmas."

"How could he not know?"

"I was the result of a night of passion when my mother was a teenager. She admitted everything before the cancer took her."

Karen places a hand on her shoulder, looks genuinely saddened, "I'm sorry for your loss. How did he meet your mother?"

"My mother was Beatrice Elster's sister."

Pete looks shocked, "Next you'll be telling me you have a long lost brother called Luke!"

"Pete!"

"This is all a bit too Star Warsy for me."

The woman turns to Pete, tears flowing again, her voice trembles, "It's the truth". She points to the bin, "Take that blood, a sample of mine and Leo's you'll find common markers."

Pete rubs his temples, "In that case welcome to the crazy extended family." he hauls the unconscious man up off the floor, reads him his rights.

Karen shakes her head, "He won't have heard any of that."

"Doesn't matter, I've said it and it's on record. You're still recording right?"

Hobb nods.

"Right, not another word, back to the car."

"No. I want the copies first. For Leo. And Hobbs daughter."

"Leo got everything from Silas."

"That was a while ago, there may be new data."

~~~

Leo carries Mattie to the reception desk. "Two for carting please." he lowers Mattie to the floor.

The synth behind the counter leans forward, sees her standing on one foot. "I detect that an injury has occurred. I can not allow her to participate."

"Frigging hell, you synths and your rule following!"

"Mattie calm down a minute! Is the manager in please?"

"I am the manager. Would you like to talk to the owner?"

"Yes please."

A moment later a man in overalls with dirty hands appears, "What's up guys?"

"My wife wants to show me her driving skills but your manager is saying she can't, health and safety."

"Are you members already?"

Leo turns to Mattie, gets a shake of the head.

"No, not yet."

The owner turns to his synth, "Tomas?"

"Yes sir."

"Have the gentleman fill in a membership form for them both please, back in a moment."

Leo fills in both of the cards, slides them back over the counter, "Sorry my handwriting isn't the best, I'm more of a digital person these days."

Tomas picks up the first of the cards, "Elsler-Hawlins?"

"No Elster Hawkins. E. L. S. T. E R. hyphen H. A. W. K. I. N. S"

The manager returns with a bucket full of sponges and gaffer tape. "I hear you've got their names Tomas, all finished?"

"I just need to take payment."

"Skip that, lets see how..", he turns a card 180 to read it, ".. Mattie gets on first. No point refunding them after a single lap if her foot hurts." he points to a line of karts, "If you can get in number three, I'll tape some of these around your foot so you don't bang it."

Leo helps her into the kart, watches as the owner rips open packs of large sponges and places them around her foot.

"Leo wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"I'm Carl. Couldn't hold those in place a moment could you?"

"Sure."

Carl pulls of a length of tape and gently wraps it around the bundle. He gets two more sponges and tapes them under her heal. "Comfortable?"

"Yes. Thanks."

"Hopefully that will do it. Buckle up and give it a go. Easy on the accelerator, they're a bit nippy."

"I've been here before with school friends."

"How long ago?"

"About four years?"

Carl holds her eye contact, "Extra extra careful when you start then. These are top speed limited but not acceleration capped. Quick but not too fast, you don't want to hurt your neck."

"You've upgraded them?"

"Not exactly upgraded, swapped them for electric ones."

"This should be fun then!"

"One lap and back into the pits okay?"

Mattie cautiously heads out, takes the first few corners slowly getting a feel for the cart, then floors it into the straight, "Holy frigging shit!". There's a long screeching of rubber as she gets around the bend at the end. By the time she reaches the pit stop she's in fits of hysterical laughter. "Frigging brilliant! Shame there's only the two of us."

Carl shakes his head, "Four, wanna race? I had Tomas modded, all legal, just a few tweaks to his driving skills."

"Sure!"

"Okay, twenty laps, trophy to first and second place. TOMAS! YOU'RE UP!"

~~~

Mattie had enjoyed her trial lap, hadn't considered how competitive the men would be. The tight right hand bend was giving her a lot of problems. Unable to use her leg to help counteract the centrifugal forces she was having to rely on her arms to stop flying sideways and steer at the same time. After ten laps she was already feeling her arms ache. She mumbles to herself. "Sentient synth I don't mind losing to, especially if family. A standard Persona with a few mods, no way!" she guns it down the straight, neck muscles working overtime, just manages to steal the corner from Tomas. Joe's roundabout tactics spring to mind and she suddenly sees the racing line through the s bend like never before. A lap later and she just beats Carl to the chicane, he plows into the tyre wall, thumps the steering wheel. As she goes to cross the line for the last time she sees Carl has jumped out and is ready with a camera.

Back in the pits she removes the helmet, "I'm knackered! That was so much fun though!" she frowns, "I didn't see you Leo, how did you do?"

Carl laughs, "You didn't see him because he was right behind you the whole time. Best wing man I've seen in ages! Sorry Tomas, another third place for you."

Carl asks if they'd like a photo on the winners podium. Which turns out to be a few bricks cemented into three different heights, painted black and white.

He hands the camera to Tomas, two copies please, on the 6 by 4 paper."

He turns to Mattie, "So you're the Hawkins I've been told about?"

"It's Elster-Hawkins now". She shows off her rings. "Told what?"

"Driving mainly. You like to take speed bumps too fast for one."

Mattie pulls a guilty child's face, "Hate to admit it, but yes, I do."

"Slow down at them, you'll knacker the suspension."

"Okay. Who told you?"

Carl accepts the prints from Tomas, "You'll see. Sign one and pin it on our winners board." he motions to the wall to the side.

Mattie pins the photograph and looks at the many others there. Lots of young men beaming at the camera. She's just about to turn away when some blonde hair catches her eye. "Frigging hell! LEO! Come have a look!"

Leo joins her, looks at the board, "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"You've not seen them already?"

"Who.. Ha! So this is where they'd disappear to!"

Carl joins them, "Top of our winner board time wise for the last six months at least. They appear to be taking turns at which one wins each race. I was a bit worried that it would turn punters away, it looks to have done the opposite. People want to be able to say they've raced with them, boys and girls. The two look to have a fan base growing too. We do good drinks and popcorn sales to a load of spectators when they race."

Mattie looks closer at the photo, notices a bag on the floor, some black leather just showing. "How do they get here?"

"On a Harley, dressed head to toe in black. Some lads look to come along just to see them arrive and depart."

Mattie smiles to herself, thinks 'Knew it!'


	53. Chapter 53

"You, Me,

Mattie, Leo,

Toby, Holly-Anne,

Sophie, Mia,

Nis, Odi,

Fred, Gesha,

Max, Cindy, yeah I know their not a couple,

Danny, Emily,

Silas, Sandra

Pete, Karen.

Is there anyone I forgot?" Joe looks at Laura. "That's twenty people to sit around a table! As our daughter would say, frigging hell! Are you sure we can pull this off? How are we going to cook for so many?"

She places a hand on his, "Don't panic, we'll use the ovens in both houses, only eleven of us actually eat, nine will just be enjoying the company. Still a pretty big table we'll need."

Laura counts the people off in her head and on her fingers. "Twenty one. You forgot Peggy."

"Twenty one! Twelve eating."

Joe looks at Mattie's kitchen. "There's one way we can do this."

Mattie hobbles into the room on her home made crutch, "How's that?"

"I take the centre unit out to make space for a temporary table."

"As long as you can put it all back together afterwards, fine."

"Really?"

"That was your suggestion wasn't it?"

"Yeah, just didn't expect you to accept it so readily."

"There's nowhere else to put it, unless we take over the living room. I'd rather it was here."

"Ok. Seven people along the length, four at the ends, that gives us twenty two spaces and a good shaped table." he paces out rough widths for each person, "That should fit, just enough room for people to get around the table. Space for the oven to open safely. If we put the corner ..... here." he holds his arms up at ninety degrees.

Mattie raises an eyebrow, "Looks good to me. Got the materials?"

"No, I'll head out in a moment with Toby, order the wood from the timber yard, hopefully they can deliver quickly."

Mattie frowns, "How are people going to pass dishes around? The width will be too wide to reach over."

"Let me think about that."

~~~

Joe turns to turns to his son, "Tobs, can you phone home, find out where we should go to buy marbles or ball bearings?"

"I can find out from here." he stops playing games and switches to a browser. After paging through lots of online shopping sites he finally finds a result for a physical shop. "Didn't expect that. Hobby Craft! What d'you need marbles for?"

"You'll see."

~~~

At the counter Joe asks the sales lady if they can open a bag. The counter top is not level and they start to roll. "Tell you what, I'll sit on the carpet over in the corner. Let me pay for a couple of bags."

Toby turns, looks along the isle, "Enjoy the marbles, I'm going to see if I can find some stocking fillers for Holly-Anne." he grabs a basket and walks off.

A quarter of an hour later, the basket half full he finds Joe still sat on the floor, two short lines of marbles and a large circle of them between them. "Is that all you've done?"

"Proper playing pre planning prevents piss poor project performance."

"Did you just make that up?"

"Believe it or not, yes. Rather good wasn't it?"

Toby rolls his eyes, "It was okay, Mattie would say you've lost your marbles. But you clearly know where they are. So have you got enough or do you need more?"

Joe looks at the empty net bags on the floor. "Another five packs."

"I'll get them, pay for my bits too while you pick them all up. You look like the biggest kid in the store."

Joe chuckles, "Yes Dad."

~~~

At the timber merchants Joe walks around the yard, picks some 18mm MDF sheets, asks to have them delivered. Inside the shop he finds joist mounts and heads back into the yard, selects some timber to fit them, goes back to the shop again and gets several packs of screws. "Excuse me please, where can I find coach bolts?"

The man behind the counter points into the far corner, "Lowest shelves mate."

While Joe is looking at nuts and bolts Toby looks in the other direction. "Need any tools for your project?"

"Yes. A router. Glad you asked, I need another sheet of MDF! Don't let me forget."

"Ok. What sort of router?"

"One that works? Seriously, I don't know, never bought one before."

"So how do you know how to use one?"

"I don't yet. I'm going to copy the Elsters and watch lots of YouTube videos first. Then practice on some scraps."

Toby wanders off.

Joe settles on the longest thickest bolts he can find, gets a set of washers and nuts to fit. He gets up to see Toby on the other side of the shop by the counter, heads there himself. "Why the big bags?"

"Got your router sorted. Early Christmas present."

"Which one did you get?"

"A good one."

"Which?"

"Dad! It's a Christmas present!"

"Ok." he turns to the sales man, "Just these for me then please, and the wood for Hawkins."

"Dad?"

"Yes Toby."

"Extra wood?"

"Thanks! Er, can I also have a half sheet of 12mm please? On second thoughts make that a full sheet. I don't suppose you know where I can get a large roll of bubble wrap do you?"

"The plastics specialist on the estate." the man looks at his watch, "They close in twenty five, it will take you fifteen if the road works aren't too snarled up. Cash or account?"

"Cash, I'll open an account next visit."

The man motions to the card terminal. A few seconds later the man staples the receipt to the order copy. "All done, the lorry should be with you just after 8AM."

"Thanks! Have a great Christmas!"

"And you."

"Almost forgot, do you have any offcuts I can take to practice on?"

"Loads. Anything in the big green bins by the saw bench or leaning next to it. Take whatever you want."

"Great, thanks again."

~~~

On the drive home Joe turns to Toby, "Can you phone Mum and find out what we'll be covering the table with?"

Toby does as asked, turns to his father, "Next roundabout do a u-turn, we need to head to M&S Home, two unit's down from Hobby Craft. And Mum asks where we'll be building the table. She says you both must be getting old and forgetful."

"Why?"

"You forgot Mia's Tim."

"Blast! We're okay, eight by three gives us twenty two places, I've been thinking, would seven by four be better?"

Toby shrugs, "Don't ask me."

"It would be less tight near the oven. Can you see if there's a pen and paper in the glove box?"

Toby has a rummage. "Everything but! I got some for Holly-Anne, I can replace them."

Joe pulls over and does a few sketches. He finds his receipt, calls the timber yard and asks for an extra one and a half sheets.

Toby looks at him, somewhat confused. "All that just to change the shape a bit?"

"The bigger is gets the floppier it will become. So I'm going to use one to extend the length, sandwich all three top bits to a sheet underneath, cover as much of that T as possible."

Toby looks at the drawing, sees the T shaped join where the sheets meet. "That wood we got for legs, couldn't you use lengths of that?"

"If we need to. But on it's own it would make the stress points smaller."

"Are we building it in the garage?"

"It'll be large and heavy if we did, it would be better to build it in place."

"Mum's going to love that, all the dust." there's a sarcastic tone to his voice.

"Yeah. If I get table cloths, can you get me a staple gun and builders vac from Tool Station? I'll pay you back."

"Sure Dad."


	54. Chapter 54

The Elster and Hawkins family gather at the parents for a full breakfast, Mia and Laura being helped a little by Mattie. Laura watches her moving. "It was nice of Danny to print up that.. thing for you Matts. He's quite considerate and creative."

"It feels weird, but the weights totally off my foot. I'd not appreciated my tibia shape until he strapped it on and pulled the levers over."

"Levers?"

Mattie parks her bottom on a bar stool, raises her leg, "Like the things on ski boots." she snaps the two under her knee open.

"Why have those?"

"So I can get better circulation when I'm resting without the agro of taking it off. Or having to adjust everything again when I put it back on."

"You kids are amazing."

"We're not kids Mum"

"You know what I mean. We didn't have access to a fraction of this stuff when we were your age. Now it's all 'If you can think it you can print it'."

"Guess so. To a degree." she does the levers back up, carefully gets down, feels for the rubber stuck to the bottom gripping the floor before taking all weight off the stool. "Anything else I can do?"

"Yes, put the juice in a jug, otherwise I think we're all ready. You could call your father and Toby over from yours."

~~~

She finds Joe in the kitchen with an enormous roll of bubble wrap. "I love that stuff! Why is there a cardboard box taped to the floor?"

Toby waves an electrician's screwdriver, "Power feed for a pop-up mains socket."

"But we didn't have one."

"You did."

"Didn't. The worktop didn't have any holes in it."

"Did. It was on the floor under the unit. The fitters never installed it."

"Oh. Mum says breakfast is ready." she lets them lead, has a pop of some bubble wrap. Gets seven pops before Joe calls her name. She chuckles, "Coming Dad."

Her chuckles return when she sees the whole Elster clan is in Christmas jumpers. Leo, Max, Fred and Odi are in green elf tops, Mia, Nis, Cindy and Gesha in red santa designs. They've sat so the tops alternate colours along the kitchen table. To say they were bunched up tight was an understatement. "That looks cozy. Let me take a photo!"

Fred smiles, "If you could. Much as I love my family I'm sat on the edges of two chairs. It's a sub-optimal way to distribute my weight."

"The equivalent of a numb bum?"

"Something like that."

She looks at Leo, who smiles back, "Definitely numb, be quick."

"Okay, if you could duck down Soph, ok, smiles everyone!"

Sophie gets out of shot, says "Duck" and starts making quaking noises getting laughs from everyone. Mattie snaps a picture, smiles at the results. The phone is passed along the line. When Leo gets handed it he lingers on it, wipes a tear, "That one's a keeper for sure. We should ask Paul if he can do a wide print to frame."

~~~

Leo pushes his plate towards the middle of the table, "That was lovely ladies, I'm stuffed!"

Toby smirks, "Oven ready?"

"If it's Antigua oven, yes."

Mattie looks up from the remaining eggs she'd saved to last, "You're cruise ready?"

"Maybe."

"When?"

"You'll see."

"That sounds like you've booked something?"

"You'll see."

"Have you?"

"You'll see."

Mattie laughs, "Mia, give him a nudge, he's sounding like a stuck record."

Mia gives him a playful nudge and Leo starts saying "You'll see. Click. You'll see. Click. You'll see. Click. You'll see. Click" getting fits of giggle from Sophie and Laura.

Giggles over Sophie asks "Mummy, can we open some presents now?"

"Not this year please Soph, we'd like to save them all up for the party tomorrow with everyone else. Can you wait that long?"

"We're having a party? A proper one?"

"Yes. There's going to be twenty two of us sat around a table in Mattie and Leo's."

"And dancing?"

Mattie nods, "The living room will be waiting for you."

"Yipee! Can we watch a movie if we're not opening presents then?"

~~~

"Hands up for rom-com? Action? CGI? Ok, Soph's choice of Big Hero 6 it is."

The film has the group on a rollercoaster of emotions. Sophie has Mia and Nis repeat Baymax's Bah-a-la-la-la fist bump. Leo turns to whisper to Mattie. "That would make a brilliant cosplay. You'd need to be wearing something to help you see and breathe though."

Joe gets up, "You kids can watch another film if you want, I'm going to get working on the table in Leotilda's."

Mattie turns, a slight scowl on her face, "What did you just say?"

"Er, Leotilda."

"You merged Matilda with Leo? You couldn't come up with something that used Mattie?"

Joe waves his hands, "Like what?"

"Mateo. On second thoughts that sounds too much like that blasted Harun copy. Leomat."

Toby laughs, "Sounds too much like something he'd wipe his feet on."

Mattie reaches for a cushion then thinks better of it.

Mia smiles, "I have worked out all possible anagrams of Leo Mattie. With your love of superhero action films I think you'll like the best result."

"Which is?"

"Atom Elite."

Mattie's eyes widen and mouth drops. The cogs whirr for a few seconds. "Frigging awesome!"

Toby is looking rather stunned too. "You jammy slap chops. Awesome is an understatement!" he stands, "Dad I'll help with the table." as they leave through the kitchen door Toby can just about be heard saying "Atom Elite, frigging hell, that's insanely good."

Mia turns to Mattie. I've used the same process to make anagrams of two M words. It's come up with thousands of results, there are some good ones like A Mailbag Transmitted..", her speech speeds up, "A Barmaid Malt Testing, A Transmittable Mag Id, Marmalade Tasting Bit, Salamander Mag Titbit, Dalmatian Matters Big, Anagrams Battle Timid.."

"All right Mia, enough!"

"I'm Sorry."

"That's okay. What words did you use?"

"I'll tell you later. One you don't like people using. The other your parents don't like you using."

Mattie's about to question the words when there's a motor whine she recognises.

"Home again home again, flippty flip."

Mattie bends over to see further past the door frame. "Teddy, where on earth have you been!"

There's a rapid motor sound and he steps into the room, small rucksack straps showing, "On another adventure with Mr Patches."

A head appears from behind Teds. "Hello Mattie!"

"You're both filthy! What have you been up to?"

"Getting cold and dirty in mud."

"I can see that, WHY?"

"We snuck a lift in the very back of a breakdown lorry, the front wheels were throwing up dirt into the space we were hiding in."

"And you 'snuck' away why?"

"An adventure! We liked the first one, wanted another." Mr Patches lowers his head, "but this one was a disaster. We got cold and dirty, then couldn't get out of the garage we were locked in. The lorry owner went on holiday for three weeks!"

Mattie shakes her head. "No more adventures in bad weather. Please. I'll have to talk to Danny to see how we can get you cleaned up."

"Sorry Mattie!"

"So you should be. Your supposed to be Security Bear and Sophie's Companion or something like that. Not out getting caked in mud. If you promise not to leave the house without us I'll take you on our next holiday."

Sophie returns from the kitchen with a hot chocolate, "Mr Patches! There you are, I thought I'd lost you again. Why are you covered in mud?"


	55. Chapter 55

The door bell chimes, Mattie bends forwards to do up the clasp levers. Leo puts down his drink, "I'll get that."

"Thanks Bunny."

He opens the front door to see Pete and Karen. And a stranger. "Hi Pete, Karen."

Karen smiles, "I hope you don't mind, we brought along someone we thought you should meet."

"Hi, I'm Charlotte Huntley."

Leo frowns, "Come in, everyone else is here."

He leads them into the busy living room, "We have an extra guest, is there space at the table Laura, Joe?"

"Yes."

"This is Charlotte Huntley."

Everyone says hello to Charlotte. Sophie being the youngest and not working to the same rules as the adults asks the question they're all thinking. "Who are you?"

"I'm Leo's cousin."

Leo stutters getting a concerned look from Mattie, "I d.. d.. don't have any cousins."

"My mother was your mothers sister."

"But my mother didn't have any siblings."

Charlotte pulls out an old worn photograph. "She did, they were split up at a very young age."

Leo flops into the sofa next to Mattie, eyes darting back and forth. "My mother insisted she had a sister. Everyone told her she didn't, that she was imagining things. I found some doctors notes." he closes his eyes, recalls the image of holding the paper in his young hands, "They said she was suffering from Schizotypal Personality Disorder, put her on all sorts of medication." he leaps to his feet and gives the woman a hug, "Cousin Charlotte, you've banished the one ghost that was still troubling me! She wasn't mad, they made her that way! The best Christmas present ever, thank you!!"

She gently pushes him away, "Sorry, but I may be replacing one daemon with another." she pulls a letter from her coat. "From my research on the family tree I think this letter really is from your father."

Leo frowns hard, "Why would a letter be an issue?"

"It's dated after his alleged death."

There's gasps from half of the humans and synths. Leo reads the letter, eyes darting back and forth to quickly scan each line. "He was being blackmailed? By who?"

"The father of the scientist Pete and Karen have arrested."

Leo clutches his head, "Sorry, need to go rest, my blood pressure has spiked, it's giving me a headache." Mattie quickly snaps the levers and hobbles after him.

The group all sit in silence, stunned at the revelation.

~~~

Mattie gently runs her fingers through his hair, "Imagine you're on a hammock, listening to the waves crashing on the beach. I'm there next to you."

Leo, eyes closed, smiles. "With a rum and pineapple?"

"Don't mind, it's your day dream, have what you want."

"Thanks."

He turns and wraps an arm around her, "You're in the bikini and summer dress then. Just relaxing after our favourite breakfast."

Mattie pulls the covers over them both and gently bumps foreheads. She swears she can hear the waves, although she keeps it to herself. Twenty minutes later she can hear a faint playing of music. It's slowly getting louder. "Is that you Leo? Or Toby getting carried away next door?"

"You're not seeing this?"

"No but I can hear the sea. And music."

"Del is walking up the beach with the boombox from the ship, it's playing Into The Night."

"I recognised the track. How did Del get it?"

"It's a dream, things like 'how' don't matter."

"I do love you Leo."

"Love you too Mattie. Shame you can't see this, a white unicorn is walking up to us both."

"Now you're teasing me!"

"Honest it's there. The next time you're tired and emotional enough for it to work fully I'll bring us back here for you to say hello. Maybe even have a ride."

Mattie gives him a gentle kiss, "Sounds awesome. Sleep for a bit, let your head calm down."

"No need, it's cleared already."

"That fast?"

"With your help, yes. And we've been up here half an hour" he sits up. "It's exciting and scary to think Dad might still be out there. Why go to those lengths to pretend he's dead?"

"To protect you from something I guess. Come on then, the others will be waiting for us."

"Um, before we go back down I've got a Christmas present for you." he reaches under the bed and pulls out a beautifully wrapped gift. "I had the store send it for me the day we'd seen that jacket."

"Why didn't you put it under the tree?"

"I was feeling a bit self conscious."

"Why?"

"Some might have an opinion on what I picked."

Mattie slides a finger under the paper and gently pulls it open. Inside is something soft wrapped in layers of white tissue paper. She pulls them back to see a white jumper. She raises it up by the shoulders and realises half of what she expected isn't there. "The crop top jumper! Go stand at the end of the bed."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes, no cheating."

"Okay, eyes closed."

He can hear Mattie moving about, resists the temptation to open his eyes very slightly.

"Okay, keep them closed. I want you to open your eyes in a moment, for as long as it takes for you to see me then close them again. Like you're a camera. Understood?"

"Yes."

Mattie strikes a pose on the bed with her arms above her head, checks that only the very bottom of her breasts are showing. "Okay, take your snap!"

Leo opens and closes his eyes very quickly. A second later a big grin comes over his face. "Lovely. To be filed with my holiday video."

"Glad you liked it. Now keep them closed while I get changed again."

"Can I face the wall instead?"

"If you want."

Soon after she taps him on the shoulder, "Come on Bunny, the others will be growing impatient." before she can step to the door Leo holds her and pulls her in for a kiss. "Happy Christmas Angel."

~~~

Sophie looks at the table, "Is that why Toby said you got lots and lots of marbles?"

Joe smiles, "Yes, they run in the circular groove in the bottom of the two turn tables."

"Cool! Can I see?"

"It's a bit messy, wrapping the table cloth material over it and stapling the edges was a nightmare. I'll show you when we dismantle everything."

"Where's Charlotte going to sit?"

Joe looks at Laura with a slightly pained face, "Twenty three."

Fred steps closer, "Got any wood left? Could you turn a few chairs into something more like a bench? Odi, Nis, Gesha and I can then sit much closer together, give you some space back."

~~~

Sophie leans back into the sofa, "Mummy, can we .."

"Now you can."

"Yay!" she springs out of the chair and dashes to the tree, picks a gift for everyone, back and forth for each one. "Oh. We don't have one for Charlotte."

"Being welcomed in by you all is gift enough, thank you."

"Okay. Can you pick one for me?"

"Santa's helper Sophie isn't it? Sure can."

Charlotte finds a few things labelled for Sophie and opts for the one from Pete and Karen. "This one looks very well wrapped, from Pete and Karen."

Sophie examines the wrapping, "How do you pleat paper?"

Pete leans forward to watch, "With great care."

"You wrapped this?"

"Yes. I'm not a total klutz all the time. Especially when I sit and slow down."

"It's lovely. Almost too good to unwrap."

Karen gets forward and places a hand on Pete's knee, "You'll never know what's inside if you don't."

"Is it some balls? A football and a bigger ball?"

"Does it flex like a football?"

"No."

"Is it as light as a football?"

"No."

"Who did you want to cosplay next year?"

"Rey." a look comes over her face and there's no way the paper's getting out of the room in one piece. Sophie does a very good impression of Nis screaming into the ultrasonics, getting a few pained faces from all the others, all but Silas and Danny, "Rey's BB-8!"

Karen looks at the the happy girl, "We commissioned Daniel and Silas to make it. You won't need a remote control."

"Then how do I tell it to move?"

"You talk to it."

"It's like Teddy and Mr Patches?"

"Yes. But he speaks in beeps and whistles."

Teddy steps forward, "I can translate until you learn his language."

"You want me to learn beeps? You'll be like C3-PO?"

"Yes and yes. But you only need to be able to listen to beeps, you can talk in English."

Sophie puts her head to one side, "If I learn beeps and whistles can I talk in them if I want?"

Everyone looks to Danny and Silas. Danny says "I think so, you'll have to see."

She puts BB-8 on the floor. "Okay. Where's his power button?"

Fred kneels down next to BB-8, gives it a tap with a finger, "How can you tell it's a he, not a she?"

Sophie looks at it. "I don't know. HE just is. Why has he got III written on him?"

"1 stroke 1? That means he's a limited edition. A one off, not to be repeated."

Fred spins it on the spot, spots a slight difference in surface texture and pushes a panel. BB-8 powers up, beeps and whistles.

Teddy drops into a seated position. "BB-8 says Hello. Want's to know who his owner is."

"That's me."

"Get up real close and whistle. Then say your name."

Sophie does as asked. BB-8 beeps a few times and rolls across the carpet, turns and projects a large photo of Sophie onto the wall.

Laura pulls her feet up onto the sofa, "Impressive. Learning to speak beep will keep you busy Sophie. You'll be able to tell people you speak English, French and Beep."

"And Spanish and German Mum!"

Laura looks at Pete and Karen, "You didn't need to spend so much, honestly."

Pete does the push, "Dual income, no kids. And we both love seeing Sophie."

Mattie carefully undoes one end of her gift from Toby and pulls it out. "A Storm Trooper? What did I say about you and dolls."

"Action figure! Take off his helmet."

Mattie does so, "OMG! Look Leo, it's you!"

He opens an identical sized box, rips of the paper, "Haha, that's so you! Perfect! Thanks Toby." he shows Mattie his Princess Leia figure. "The likeness is superb, how did you get them made?"

"Harun. He's stopped doing synth copies of people, is doing these action figures now."

"How many has he done?"

"So far .. Two."

Laura opens her gift from Joe. A very large bottle of her favourite perfume, wrapped in something red and frilly that's quickly hidden from the others. "That's so big I could almost bathe in the stuff."

Joe runs a hand gently down her arm, "I love the smell to so be my guest."

Joe looks at his gift from Toby, Max, Fred, Laura, Leo and Mattie. At first sight it's just a Christmas card envelope with a gift tag taped to the front. "Cash? iTunes or B&Q voucher?" he gives it a slight bend and feels that there's something small and solid inside. Opening the card within reveals a large silver key with a K shape cut in it. "It's for a padlock Toby?"

"Yeah, Kryptonite Shackle-less."

"Is this why you've fetched any tools I've asked for?"

"Maybe."

"Can I look now?"

"Why not?"

Joe rubs his hands together, "Okay, back in a minute." to his surprise most of the room get up to follow him. He's even more surprised to find the garage door has been changed.

He goes to put the key in the lock, Toby stops him. "You need to disable the alarm first."

"And how's that done?"

"Message the garage."

"You what?"

"Danny's installed a connected alarm. It will push you images if the system is triggered. You can turn lights on and off, lock and unlock the door, enable and disable the alarm, all with a simple message."

Joe turns to Danny, "Have you been working 24 7 on things for Christmas?"

"Pretty much. But it's been fun."

Toby hands his father a slip of paper with a number and messages to send.

A moment after Joe hits send on a message "DISARM UNLOCK LIGHT." there's a beep. Toby motions to the door handle.

Joe opens it and steps inside. "How on earth did you manage this without my knowing?"

"Magic. Aka distraction."

"Why the lock on the door if I can do it by message?"

"Manual override in case something goes pear shaped."

"Oh, like SNAFU or FUBAR at my office when the controller failed?"

Danny chuckles, "Yeah, those two."

Joe stands in the middle and takes stock of his new man-cave. There's a long bench, saw bench, band saw, sanding wheel, pillar drill, lathe and a wheeled vertical storage trolly covered in just about every hand tool he can imagine. And on the wall small parts bins full of screws, hinges and all sorts of fasteners, an assortment of power tools. In the far corner there's a table with small table with radio and teas-maid.

"This is brilliant, thanks guys."

Laura puts an arm around his waist, "A lot of it's quite old, but it all works."

"Like me then. That's all that matters. Thanks again guys. First project order?"

"I wouldn't mind some custom tiered planters for the patio?"

Sophie puts a hand up, "Can you make me a longer desk for my homework?"

"Okay, I'll start thinking about designs. Let's get back indoors."

~~~

Holly-Anne looks at her first gift, isn't sure what to make of it. It's just a few lengths of plastic joined in a number of places. "What does it do?"

Joe looks amazed, "There's a blast from the past! They were about when I was a kid. You put a pencil in that cylinder bit, then trace out a drawing with the pointed bit in the middle, keep that disc stuck in one place. It scales up your work. So you could make your drawings poster sized. It looks like yours is adjustable, mine was fixed to four times original."

"Aw, Thanks Toby, I could use that when I'm painting my murals."

Mattie sits forward, "You do murals now?"

"Yes, did my third commission last week for a boys room. Some superhero characters he liked off my Patreon page."

"Did you hear about the anagram Mia discovered of Leo Mattie?"

"No?"

"Atom Elite! Shame we couldn't have you design some outfits for us to cosplay next year."

Danny looks at Toby, knowing about the gift yet to be unwrapped. "Yes you could. COMIC convention? That's what it started with, comics, not films. We'd just need a comic to go viral. Toby, know anyone we could commission to do a comic book? DCL feels like it wants to go into publishing." He nods towards Holly-Anne.

"Might do."

Mattie thinks out loud, "How do you make it go viral?"

Danny thinks back to his more hormone fuelled youth. "Tobs, did your Dad ever tell you about the stunt FHM pulled? They projected a 100ft tall naked image of Gail Porter onto the Houses of Parliament in '99?"

"No?"

Mattie laughs, "Sod getting naked for publicity."

"It was more the projection I was thinking about."

"Sure?"

"YES!"

"Okay, just checking."

Max is looking back and forth between them all. "Could you turn my story into a comic too?"

Holly-Anne shrugs, "Why not, I've not read it, you might want to write a screen play of it, make it describe the visual elements more if it doesn't have them already."

"Thanks!"

Mattie looks at a smiling Leo, "What would our story line be?"

Danny shakes his head in disbelief, "You want a story line? You've already lived it! Atom Elite vs Prof Singularity! Shark Boy, Mind Control Mattie and family."

Laura rolls back into the sofa, all smiles and laughter, "And family? You're not putting me and Joe in comic spandex, no way!"

Holly-Anne's face drops as she turns to Toby, "Should I delete it?" she gets out her phone and goes to the artwork, "Sorry, those characters are already in flight." she gets up and hands the phone to Laura.

"Bloody hell Holly, that's amazing! I don't think I'm quite as curvy as that though."

Danny sits forward, hand out for the phone. "I don't know Mrs H, but Mum could knock you something up to find out."

Sophie gets jumps up and down, waves her hands in the air, "The whole family at ComicCon! Please Mummy please!"

Laura goes rather red, "I'll think about it."

"Yayy! That wasn't a no!"

Laura whispers to Joe, "You'd think she was seven all over again."

Mattie's gift from Leo is rather floppy. She feels through the paper and says "A shirt?"

"Close."

"She turns it over and feels a second collar. "Two shirts?"

"Closer."

She carefully undoes an end and slides them out, "Three shirts!"

"Remember the bed linen you loved on the cruise? Egyptian cotton, the best you can get."

Mattie examines the first shirt, there are tiny red tags on each of the the shoulder seams with white text, LEO & SIL. On the inside collar is a larger red label, 'LEO & SIL. Size: Mattie'. All of the stitching is in red, with some intricate designs on the cuffs and collar. "It's beautiful guys, thanks!" she had assumed the three were the same, they all were the same white cotton and red thread, but the inner one had a far more elaborate design stitched into the body, "Wow guys, who designed this?"

Silas nods towards Leo, "Your Hubby, I just did the machining."

"Just? It's lovely! I'm going to try one on" she does up her brace, takes the top shirt and heads to the cloakroom. Leo calls after her, "Not the middle one?"

"I'm saving that for our next date."

Laura sits forward, looks at Leo, "Better find a really nice restaurant somewhere."

Mattie pulls the door closed and takes off her jumper. She looks in the mirror, turning side to side. Her determination to get in better shape was paying off. Saying no to pizza and only picking Eat Me cakes from Mia had helped her shift the last few pounds. Taking the stairs at a pace and walking more, doing her crunches while Leo used the bathroom each morning had flattened her stomach. To her surprise her bra still fitted the same even after the weight loss. She'd expected them to be the first to reduce. Leo not a boob man? Yeah right. She slips on the shirt and buttons it up. Then undoes one button for Leo, then thinks of some of the guests and does it back up. She had many fitted shirts hanging in her wardrobe, none were as perfect a fit as this.

Back in the living room Leo's eyes say all she needs to know. She leans forward and gives him a kiss. She hobbles to Silas and gives him a peck on the cheek. "If you fancy an alternative name for the shop, how about 'Mods and Shirts'?"

"You mean like mods and rockers?"

"Yes."

"Nice. You think people would pay for my tailoring?"

"Are you kidding me? This is gorgeous!"

Sophie points to a box, "That's for you and Leo Mattie, I don't want to lift it, it's too heavy."

Leo gets to the floor to unwrap it. "From Danny and Emily." he rips the paper off to reveal a Sonos system box.

Mattie turns to Danny, "Thanks but why not a DCL product using those little one chip systems?"

"It just works. And software updates are very reliable. No point going up against a product of that calibre unless I can beat it. And I can't think of any feature to add to do that. And it integrates with the other half of your present."

Max and Fred come back into the room, Fred nods to Danny. Dan hands Mattie a card addressed to them both. Inside it she finds a large key. "Other half? Another key? Have you converted our garage into a cinema or something?"

"No, wish I'd thought of that, it opens a padlock."

"Where?"

"You'll have to find out. But before you go looking .. here's something from some friends."

She looks at the tag on the wrapping, "To Mattie and Leo, Merry Christmas! Love Dan, Alana, Joe and Fay xx." she does a little sqweel and wriggle of excitement, rips open the paper to see a Blu-ray disc, NERO LIVE IN 360. 128Mbps LC Edition. "Oh my.. Oh my .. Oh my .."

Leo rubs her shoulder, "Mattie, calm down, you'll hyperventilate!"

"Oh my God!" she looks at the key again, "Any clues?"

"On this floor". Danny follows her.

In the hall by the front door is a large wooden box, painted black with silver text stencilled at an angle. LC360mini.

"Danny! Thanks! But it's too much, you've spent a fortune!"

"Can you keep a secret? Even from the rest of the family, other than Leo of course?"

"Yes. If I need to."

Danny lowers his voice, "DCL wouldn't exist if it were not for the interaction I had with your family and Leo. But especially you Mattie. With the last contract paid for I can now officially say DCL has made me a multi-millionaire."

"Frigging hell!" Mattie gives him a tight hug, "Congratulations!"

"Thanks. So this is my gift to you and Leo to say thanks for being two of the giants shoulders on which I stand. Couldn't have done it without you all. Now lets see what Sophie makes of a Nero concert!"

"Um.. Slight problem, we don't have a blu-ray player."

"Yes you do."

"Er, I think I'd know about it?"

"There's one built into the light cannon. You can't play these discs on anything else. Yet. The encoding is specific to our hardware. Which I'm going to make open source by the way. Let others join in and grow the user base."

"Open source? You're giving it away?"

"Yes, but DCL will own and have governance over the format, so people can't make non-compatible units."

Mattie thinks how a younger Danny would have laughed at his older self using a word like governance. How time changed people. "I assume it was Fred and Max that brought it in?"

"Yes."

"I'll ask them to bring it into the living room. But only after everyone else has unwrapped all their gifts."

Holly-Anne opens a few more small things from Toby, notepad, pens and pencils. Then gets handed a large box. With only the paper off she's already giving Toby looks, the Christian Louboutin logo giving away who makes the content. She opens the box and grins. "Toby Hawkins!"

Mattie peels the sellotape from the lovely paper and unwraps what she thought was a large book to find a thick rubber protective cover for her Slate. Sandra smiles at her, "Silas told me how you love your tablet, didn't have anything to protect it from being dropped. They're supposed to be rated for military use."

"Thanks! I'll fit it in a minute."

Niska smiles, "Mia and I have his thy length boots for when we're on the bikes."

Mattie turns, bangs her foot sideways and counts down in her head while the pain subsides. "Bikes? Plural?"

The sisters look at each other. Niska is the first to speak. "We love the Harley, but wanted something that got us in a different position."

"So what did you get?"

"A couple of black Honda, CBR1000RR Racing Kits for Front Up Control."

Laura looks at Nis, "That went over at ten thousand feet. Front Up Control?"

"Stops wheelies when we're accelerating hard. Zero to 120 in fewer seconds than I want to admit."

"Got a photo?"

Mia passes Laura her phone. Laura looks shocked, "The only skin I can see is your face through the open helmet, but that's going to blow fuses." she looks at the men in the room. "No, you're not looking today. We're out of very cold."

Holly-Anne slips away to try on her shoes, calls out "Toby? Can you come here please?"

"Uh oh, hope I'm not in trouble."

He returns moments later to giggles from Laura.

"What?"

"Holly-Anne, you've worn your old lipstick!"

Toby opens his gift from Laura and Joe, looks gobsmacked. "Kuruz, The Arrival? How did you get it? Sonesh had sold out?"

Laura absent-mindedly rubs Joe's thy, "Your father spent days hunting for that."

Mia opens her first present, holds up a backless gold shimmery dress, gives Tim a smile, "J'adore!"

The couple gaze into each others eyes.

Sophie has to cough loud to get their attention. "Tim, your present from Mia."

He opens it to find what looks like a fat magicians wand, black with silver at both ends. The only clue that it's a gadget is the word SAMSUNG in a tiny font at one end, helping show which way is up. "What do I do with it?"

Mia points with a finger, "Hold it in your left hand, tap it gently right at the very top."

He, Toby and Danny give a "Whoa!" when a flexible OLED screen rolls out at speed. Danny jumps up to get a closer look. The display has a Linux KDE desktop, the wallpaper is a photo of Mia on the Honda in her leathers. "How is the bike staying up? I don't see a stand?"

Mia looks up to see his puzzled face, "Paul cloned it out. Nice shot isn't it?"

"Yeah, you look stunning. Don't show Joe or Toby, they'll be taking all the ice cubes for drinks to make a cold bath."

Danny gets a cushion to the back of the head, laughs, "Toblerone mate, I thought that was Mattie's party trick."

Mia points to an icon, "It's got WiFi and 5G networking so you can connect to the office for emergencies from anywhere, not have to travel in so much."

"Awesome, thanks. I'll be able to spend more time with you." the couple return to looking into each others eyes.

Sophie waves a hand about and gets no response, "I think Mia's a magician, they've both left the room but are still here."

Another half hour of Sophie zipping back and forth has everyone opening the last of their presents.

Max is happy, lost in a world of his own, his volume of short stories printed and bound into an embossed leather backed book.

Fred has a pair of electrostatic headphones and is clearly itching to give them a go but is being polite, talking to Gesha. She's got a number of outfits resting across her lap.

Laura sees she's already wearing the jewellery he'd got her. "The necklace and bracelets are lovely, where did you get those Fred?"

"BR2. Arts and Crafts of Africa. All made by artists out there."

Everyone has several presents but is clearly focused on one in particular. Everyone except Odi who looks to be torn between which of two Aran jumpers to wear.


	56. Chapter 56

Laura asks Sandra about the bandage on her arm, "What happened?"

"I was running from WAP, hid in a small electrical and steam heating pipe cupboard in the basement of the shopping centre. In my desperate fight to make space to get in and close the doors behind me I'd taken some of the heat protection off a pipe."

Silas explains how he can patch her skin but it will leave something like a scar. He turns to Tim, "Talking of scars, if Mia says she wants to upgrade her nails like Sandra did get a light chainmail t-shirt. To protect your back" he gives the young man a wink.

Sandra looks sad, "I did say I was sorry."

"I know you did dear, you weren't to know how sharp they'd got."

Danny asks, "The scar, is that's why you want a tattoo?"

"Yes. And I just want to look a bit different."

Fred's face pulls itself into a proud grin, "I've developed some inks, human and synth safe that brake down under strong ultraviolet light. The frequency of the light is very specific."

Mattie looks up, her attention caught. "So they'd fade on holiday?"

"Yes. If you didn't put suntan cream on."

"Synths don't wear suntan cream."

"They can now."

"Huh?"

"Mia told me about the CPU grease. I've developed a thin grease that filters UV, slowly breaks down and evaporates. If Sandra was with you on holiday she'd just need to keep topping up, like you."

"Neat!"

"Thank you Mattie."

Joe sits forward, perched on the edge of the sofa, "Leo, time to reveal our little project?"

Leo sits forward too, "An ideal time, you tell them."

The family all turn to see Joe. Mattie looks the most intrigued, "What have you been up to?"

"Something I hope you'll all like. Our synth friends particularly. My skills outside the office appear limited to woodwork and transformers, but I'm okay with that."

The comment has Nis and Mia sitting forward too, soon copied by the rest of the gathering.

"It was in part inspired by Toby's Christmas present."

Toby looks puzzled, "By a comic book? How?"

"Not the book itself, what was in it. It had a very thin security tag, a coil with many windings set out one wire thick. We've been experimenting with configurations. As the wire is fine we've used six parallel wires to get it to handle the current."

Leo adds "Four will do it, so should a coil wire break you're still good."

Joe nods, "Yes, gives some resilience to wear. It's designed to go under the skin, around the charge port."

Niska frowns, "But then the port would be seen."

"We've thought of that too. A thin tapered silicon disc would hold the skin just above the socket."

"Why not remove it?"

"Thought of that too. In case of emergency you could puncture the skin directly above the socket and use a normal charge cable."

Fred looks at Sandra, "I think I could separate the skin from the charge port, insert coil and silicon through the hole as the skin can be stretched somewhat. In many ways it would be like the routine keyhole surgery I do on humans."

She turns to Silas, "So we could go on holiday together? Have a cruise like Mattie and Leo?"

Silas almost chokes, "Easy darling, I'd have to save up for a bit, the shops doing good, but not that good."

Danny sits back and puts an arm around Emily, "How about you running the ink machine as your business when I've built it? You've got space on the High Street, not me. You could let Sandra run one side, the inking, visual mods, you do the other modding."

Silas sits back, staring at the ceiling, "Visual mods and programming mods. Hmm."

Sandra looks at Mattie, "I've done a design, can I show it to everyone on your tablet?"

"What's it in?"

"The DAZ 3D software Toby told Silas about."

"Sure, let me get it a moment."

Sophie puts down her iPad, a swirly floral design on screen. Laura looks at Sophie, "I think you're still a bit too young for things like that."

"But Mum they're not permanent, you let me have water transfers in the summer holiday."

"True, but they wash off."

"And so do these!"

"We'll talk about it later."

"Please Mummy!"

Joe backs up Laura, "Later Soph."

She crosses her arms, "Okay. Tonight."

Silas still looking at the ceiling clicks his fingers, "Mods for all! No, Mods & Shirts 4 All!" he sticks four fingers up when saying it.

Emily gives him a nod, "Not bad for a shop name."

Toby wriggles closer to Holly-Anne, "We should ban the word Doll as well as Dolly."

Mattie returns to the living room, the exoskeleton foot brace creaking with each step, "I still say it was dolls not figures." she hands Sandra the Slate, "DAZ3D's installing, will be ready in a few seconds."

Sandra taps a number of times and pulls her design off their AH server. "This is it." she hands the Slate back to Mattie.

"Frigging hell that's a beauty! You did all this design work yourself?"

"Yes."

"Wow!" Mattie passes the tablet on.

Sandra smiles, "The dragon represents Silas, his tail wrapped around my arm to hide the scars."

"And you're the phoenix in it's embrace?"

"Yes. It took a lot of attempts to get it looking like we weren't attacking each other."

Laura looks at the design, swipes the screen to turn it, "Oh my, the phoenix is beautiful, I love how the tail runs all the way to your foot."

Mattie looks at her mother, "Would you get a tattoo?"

"Me? No, I didn't like the idea of them being permanent."

"But now Fred has developed the inks?"

"I don't know, I'd not really thought about it. Would you?" Joe's eyebrows raise a little as he smiles at Laura.

"Maybe."

Laura turns in her seat to face her daughter properly, "What would you get?"

"Not sure, something related to Leo."

Leo looks at her, "You're my princess and our guardian angel. How about some wings?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, that run all the way to here.." he reaches under her leg and tickles the back of her knee. She wriggles and giggles, "Leo! Pack it in!"

Pete looks at Fred, "Have you seen the film Face Off?"

"No. Should I?"

"Our actor friend is asking if he can have a new face."

Leo looks confused, "How can he be asking for that? He's not had our program."

"Don't know, but he is."

Charlotte shifts in her chair, "Mind if I step out for a moment?"

"Sorry, I'm being an insensitive klutz again. Another time Fred."

Mattie picks up the NERO disc, "Soph, if we clear the floor of paper and hook the equipment up do you fancy a bit of a dance?"

Peggy having been the quietest of them all kicks off her slippers, "I've listened to some of the music you kids like, I'm up for a shuffle! And there's one last gift coming for you all. I'm selling some of my shares, taking ALL of you on what will likely be my farewell cruise. These bones are getting too tired."

Leo stands up, walks to the tree and turns to face everyone. "That reminds me, when I shouted at Hobb I said I'd give the program to every synth on the planet. I was angry. I've not quite done that. Hopefully the Hawkins react positively to what I've done and Dad will approve, if we ever see him again."

Mattie wobbles to a stand, "What did you do?"

"I was inspired by the Elysium film and documentary on J. M. Barrie."

Mia looks a little concerned, "The Peter Pan author? Leo, tell us, what have you done?"

"Something I think Nis wanted to do. A consciousness explosion."

"What exactly have you done Leo?"

"I gifted it to every legitimate health service on the planet. Fifty minutes ago I started the process. The last of the health care synthetics should be rebooting into consciousness right about now."


End file.
